Google took a shot at Facebook's chatbot-building services on Monday with its acquisition of API.ai, a company that helps developers build and improve conversational interfaces for their services. API.ai has more than 60,000 developers using its platform to create conversational user interfaces for apps like Slack, Facebook Messenger and Kik. Its tools make it easier for programs to parse human language and translate it into action. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company offers a vast suite of capabilities for natural language understanding, including pre-defined knowledge packages known as Domains, which make it easier for assistants to understand a variety of common requests any additional coding.

In the consumer universe, artificial intelligence is best known as a nice-to-have if stealthy feature that can suggest movies or book rides. But AI's greater worth could well be in the money-making enterprise arena, where sales, service and marketing initiatives stand to be streamlined by the data-crunching deductive power of machine learning. That's certainly the bet customer relationship management giant Salesforce is making by unveiling Einstein, the no-brainer name given to a suite of advanced AI capabilities. With Einstein, salespeople can focus on leads that statistically show the most promise of becoming clients, and customer service reps may be better prepared to answer a rainbow of consumer queries. "The strongest aspect of Einstein is that it is deeply embedded in the platform, it's just working automatically," says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, whose company officially rolled out the base product Sunday.

If there was any doubt that AI has officially arrived in the world of enterprise software, Salesforce just put it to rest. The CRM giant on Sunday announced Einstein, a set of artificial intelligence capabilities it says will help users of its platform serve their customers better. AI's potential to augment human capabilities has already been proven in multiple areas, but tapping it for a specific business purpose isn't always straightforward. "AI is out of reach for the vast majority of companies because it's really hard," John Ball, general manager for Salesforce Einstein, said in a press conference last week. With Einstein, Salesforce aims to change all that.

The nature of outreach has changed dramatically in recent years for many nonprofits, with the digital age and the rise of social media meaning that it now takes place primarily online. This opens up a wealth of new opportunities, and looking at the data can help decision makers in nonprofits identify how best to exploit these. Nonprofits can analyze the unstructured data from their Twitter and Facebook feeds to determine how best to approach a fundraising campaign, determine user sentiment, and pinpoint how it could be made more effective. This is done using natural language processing (NLP), a technology that derives understanding from unstructured data such as written text, to determine the ways users are currently posting about issues related to your cause to help create a campaign they will respond to and target them based on demographics. Sentiment analysis can then ensure that the campaign is having an impact, looking at metrics such as likes and shares, as well as using NLP again to see how people are responding in their tweets and updates.

The London borough of Enfield has enlisted artificial intelligence Amelia to take on customer service tasks for its residents starting late this year. Developed by IPSoft, Amelia is a cognitive agent, capable of automating certain tasks as well as learn from its interactions. As to what makes Amelia a competent asset to the council, IPSoft says she is "[c]apable of analysing natural language, she understands context, applies logic, learns, resolves problems and even senses emotions." Amelia currently handles cognitive customer experience for professional services company Accenture and financial consultancy firm Deloitte. This will, however, be her first public sector role.

Microsoft is hoping to boost the accessibility of machine learning technology with a new predictive analytics cloud service, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. The service is part of a movement that includes a new breed of business intelligence vendor that aims to help businesses take advantage of the increasing volume of data they collect. The new service is one of several machine learning technologies that have emerged in the past few years. It shows the need to manage data and the predictive analytics technologies that are increasingly required to analyze complex data structures. Microsoft said it built the new service using technologies that it developed for other products like Xbox and Bing.

Google today said that it's acquired API.ai, a startup with tools for speech recognition and natural language understanding. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. In addition to its developers tools, Api.ai offers a conversational assistant app with more than 20 million users. Google did not disclose its plans for integrating the startup's technology. That will be important, as Google already has tools for natural language understanding and speech recognition, and it has unveiled a Google Assistant that will be available through text messaging interface and the Google Home smart speaker.

The report investigates eight areas of human activity in which AI technologies are already beginning to affect urban life, in ways that will become increasingly pervasive and profound by 2030. The 28,000-word study includes a glossary to help non-technical readers understand new AI applications – such as how computer vision might help screen tissue samples for cancers, for example, or how natural language processing will enable computers to grasp not simply the literal definitions, but the connotations and intent, behind words.

With their latest announcement, the CRM giant, Salesforce, continues to do what Salesforce does best. And we don't just mean supplying and powering one of the most robust CRM platforms, but rather forward thinking and innovation. Salesforce has a history of jumping on industry trends as they emerge, and this year is no different with the introduction of Salesforce Einstein – or as Salesforce optimistically puts it, Artificial Intelligence for everyone. Many of us will agree that Artificial Intelligence will be the next big thing for tech. With machine learning, there's no shortage of possible use cases and improvements that can be made in almost any industry.

But the upcoming innovation in chat is about being more human, not less. With the proliferation of adequate speech recognition, AI assistants, and wireless headphones, the tech is ready to unlock the potential of our most basic form of communication. Soon, we'll talk and listen to our messaging apps when it's more convenient than typing or reading. The age of voice is about to arrive. When we've got our hands full.