The writer William Gibson once said that the future is here, just not evenly distributed. That was the case with the World Wide Web 20 years ago, when some business models – notably e-commerce and new media – took off faster than others. Now a similar trend is happening with artificial intelligence, or AI. The promise of AI has seemingly been just on the horizon for years, with little evidence of change in the lives of most consumers. A few years ago, buzzwords like "big data" hinted at the potential, but ending up generating little actual impact.

Gartner says 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2018. The prognostications of analysts are to be taken with a pinch of salt, but those working in the eCommerce field are hardly less enthusiastic. "Online retailers are scrambling to partner with or adopt new AI technologies to help facilitate customer interaction to try and match and even surpass the typical in-store experience" Let's have a look at two of the ways eCommerce merchants are already using AI to augment the experience of both retailers and their customers.

I've perfected a method over the years for preparing for a grocery store run. I carefully open up the fridge and scan through it several times, letting out most of the cold air. I then do a similar exercise with a few other cabinets in the kitchen. Even though I've tried different mobile apps in an effort get more organized, I have yet to improve upon this simple paper method. Given that I love technology, I'm convinced there's a better way to stock my shelves, but haven't seen the right solution yet.

Machine learning is quietly spreading into every aspect of our lives. Perhaps it is not quite yet completely common, but it is definitely becoming more noticeable. From recommendations by online retailers to better, less congested routes to familiar destinations, it is starting to make our lives easier. At the same time, of course, we are starting to rely on it more and more to help us organise our complicated lives, and live smarter. One really big change has been from products to services.

Cafe X's robot barista serves coffee in San Francisco. One of the biggest problems in retail today is what to do with the brick-and-mortar store. Retailers have in some ways painted themselves into a corner: the one thing stores have that really could make them stand out from online is employees – except that most retailers have taken too many employees out of stores, leaving customers to fend for themselves. If no one is in the store to help you, why bother coming to the store at all, when you can feasibly get a better experience at home on your computer, or even more ironically, on your phone in the parking lot? The question retailers now face is, do they add labor back into stores? Do they, even, add more labor into stores to offer differentiating service that can never be met by online?

This piece follows an earlier story about artificial intelligence in retail. Yesterday, he was your typical helpful retail employee. Tomorrow, he may be John Henry. Henry is the American legend who, with his bare hands, outperformed a steam-powered railroad drill in a contest that pitted man against machine. Today that drill is artificial intelligence, and instead of digging, it's selling. Whether Chad and artificial intelligence (AI) have to compete, however, is a question for retail.

Cafe X's robot barista serves coffee in San Francisco. One of the biggest problems in retail today is what to do with the brick and mortar store. Retailers have in some ways painted themselves into a corner: the one thing stores have that really could make them stand out from online is employees – except that most retailers have taken too many employees out of stores, leaving customers to fend for themselves. If no one is in the store to help you, why bother coming to the store at all, when you can feasibly get a better experience at home on your computer, or even more ironically, on your phone in the parking lot? The question retailers now face is, do they add labor back into stores? Do they, even, add more labor into stores to offer differentiating service that can never be met by online?

Pre-orders for the Nintendo Switch may be sold out, but retailers around the world are promising stock of the upcoming video game console at launch. Walmart is the latest of these. Walmart Supercenters that are open 24 hours will have stock of the Nintendo Switch available at 12:01 am local time for $299. Both the gray model and the blue and red model will be available. This follows news that video game retailer GameStop will also have the Switch in stock at launch.

Mobile World Congress 2017 -- Telef--nica has taken a bold leap into the age of artificial intelligence with its launch today of a new digital assistant called Aura, which appears to be the product of a two-year research initiative at the Spanish telco that has been a closely guarded secret. Unveiled in Barcelona on the cusp of this year's Mobile World Congress, Aura sounds and works much like Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s Siri or Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN)'s Alexa, allowing customers to check on details of their Telef--nica service -- and ask for problems to be resolved or new features to be provided -- using a voice interface on a mobile device. Judging by the demonstration at Telef--nica's offices in Barcelona, Aura works at least as effectively as the digital assistants developed by the web giants but differs in one important respect: It stores and can act upon all of the information about a particular user that is relevant to his or her relationship with the operator. In fact, Telef--nica balks at the "digital assistant" label, preferring to think of Aura as a "cognitive intelligence" system than a neat bit of voice-recognition software.

Two years ago, at a retail-marketing conference called "The Internet of Things: Shopping," a consultant took the stage and predicted that by 2028, half of Americans will have implants that communicate with retailers as they walk down stores' aisles and inspect various items. By 2054, he added, this would be true of nearly all Americans. The rest of the vision went like this: Based on how long shoppers hold an item, the retailer's computers would be able to determine whether or not they like it. Other signals from the implant would indicate whether consumers are nervous or cautious when they look at the price of the product they're holding--an analysis that may prompt the retailer to try to put them at ease with a personalized discount. After hearing these prognostications, no one in the audience voiced any doubts that consumers would want such an implant.