Chinese online retailer JD.com has teamed up with robot maker Siasun to automate its logistic network, the company said on Friday. JD said it will work with Siasun to develop logistics robots to increase automation from order to delivery. JD has already invested heavily in making its warehouses and deliveries more efficient. "Logistics in the future will go beyond basic infrastructure," said JD's technology chief Zhang Chen, "Technology ranging from the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data to artificial intelligence are making our service smarter." JD said it will work with other companies on automation similar to that at Amazon's distribution centers.

Thanks to machine learning, the page you see when you log-on to Amazon.com is likely very different from the one I see. Advertising, product recommendations, and special deals are all tailored to our unique customer profiles based on historical browsing trends and buying behavior. Online retailers like Amazon were among the first users of customer data collection and analysis for improving services and personalizing the shopping experience, and they've become so skilled some sites might even be able to predict what we will purchase before we even know what we're looking for. Advancements in digital technologies have driven a paradigm shift in the way businesses interact with their customers, with touchpoints increasingly moving to digital mediums. Because of the limited opportunities to satisfy customers on a person-to-person level, machine learning is now in widespread use by a variety of modern enterprises as a way to enrich customer experiences, create more personalized and customer-centric interactions, and offer seamless omnichannel communications. Machine learning goes a step beyond Big Data analytics, where machines employ advanced algorithms to autonomously adapt and learn from previous experiences, and therefore emulate the thought process behind human decision-making.

JD.com founder and CEO Richard Liu attends a launching ceremony of the "U.S. Mall" of JD.com in New York, the United States, July 20, 2015. BEIJING, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese online retailer JD.com has teamed up with robot maker Siasun to automate its logistic network, the company said on Friday. JD said it will work with Siasun to develop logistics robots to increase automation from order to delivery. JD has already invested heavily in making its warehouses and deliveries more efficient. "Logistics in the future will go beyond basic infrastructure," said JD's technology chief Zhang Chen, "Technology ranging from the Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data to artificial intelligence are making our service smarter."

So how could scalable retail artificial intelligence in the cloud – Brand AI – potentially turn these challenges into unique opportunities for competitive advantage during the next five years? But unlike today's arguably bland, soulless smartphone versions that focus on delivering simple functionality, Brand AI would have a unique, human character that reflects the retailer's values to inform its interactions and maturing relationship with an individual customer. Intended to be more than another'digital novelty', this disruptive form of customer engagement builds on and enhances a B&M's traditional brand as a trusted long-term friend throughout the entire customer journey by offering compelling, timely presale insights, instant payment processing and effective after sales support and care. A customer is empowered to select what personal data they choose to share (or keep private) with the Brand AI to enrich their relationship. Social, location, wearable or browsing and buying behaviour data from complementary or even competing retailers could, potentially, be shared via its cloud platform.

Technology is the future of retail. Digital data, machine learning, cloud-powered analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) will separate the wheat from the chaff in tomorrow's retail industry.

For all of Amazon's grand plans regarding delivery drones, it still needs to figure out concepts we take for granted with traditional courier methods. Namely, figuring out how to drop off your latest order without destroying anything (including the UAV itself) during transit and landing. That's where advanced computer vision comes in from Jeff Bezos' new team of Austria-based engineers, according to The Verge. The group invented methods for reconstructing geometry from images and contextually recognizing environmental objects, giving the drones the ability to differentiate between, say, a swimming pool and your back patio. Both are flat surfaces, but one won't leave your PlayStation VR headset waterlogged after drop-off.

CEO and co-founder of Viv Dag Kittlaus speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016 at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on May 9, 2016 in New York City. Apple's Siri co-creators, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, introduced their newly designed virtual assistant AI Viv, dubbed "The Global Brain." Kittlaus and Cheyer's latest venture in artificial intelligence research proved a rewarding call as AI Viv impressed the public. AI Viv goes beyond Siri's boundaries and performs various tasks that involve third-party exchange and transactions. While Apple's virtual assistant provided reliable in referencing information from the world wide web, users hoped to eventually see more.

As 2016 gets underway, retailers must be well past the point of retail-as-usual. We're in an industry in transition, and, as such, I'd like to share some transformative trends that innovators will leverage to shape customer engagement in 2016. Predictive Analytics And Machine Learning Predictive analytics aren't new -- remember a few years back when Target used predictive analytics to promote pregnancy products to a young teenage woman whose parents didn't know she was pregnant? Predictive data -- and the means retailers use to analyze it -- has matured, and retailers can rely on the analytics to avoid markdowns and out-of-stocks as well as optimize prices and purchase quantities.

Professional stylists do the job for them and the personal shopping service ships the new clothes to their door. That combo is behind the success at Stitch Fix, a San Francisco-based online subscription and shopping service founded in 2011. "I think it's the single most salient aspect of our company," said Eric Colson, chief algorithms officer at Stitch Fix. "Our business is getting relevant things into the hands of our customers. This is the one thing we're going to be best in the world at. We couldn't do this with machines alone. We couldn't do this with humans alone. We're just trying to get them to combine their powers."

GWYN is based on the Fluid Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) software platform, powered by IBM Watson. She is a gift concierge that intuitively guides customers through their shopping experience to help them select the perfect gift from 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., including 1-800-Flowers.com,