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.

At the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco today, Larry Ellison, Oracle's former chief executive and current chief technology officer, showed off a new platform for building and running chatbots. Not surprisingly, Oracle is positioning its chatbot platform as a simple interface for enterprise applications. But the chatbots made with it can work in modern messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Slack, and Kik. The tool doesn't require you to write in Java, PHP, or even JavaScript, Ellison said. Instead, it involves dragging and dropping in a graphical user interface.

What's all the fuss about the voice-activated home speaker that Amazon is due to release in the UK and Germany in late September? This gadget has been available in the US for over a year and has proven a minor hit, with sales estimates between 1.6m and 3m. But these figures belie the potential impact this kind of artificial intelligence device could have on our lives in the near future. Echo doesn't just let you switch on your music by voice command. It's the first of what will be several types of smart home appliances that work beyond simple tasks like playing music or turning on a light. It uses an artificial intelligence assistant app called Alexa to allow users to access the information and services of the internet and control personal organisation tools.

According to Gartner report, by 2020 about 85% of interaction with consumers will take place without any human participation. It could happen due to Artificial Intelligence and Voice Recognition technologies that are rapidly developing. The apps that work on the basis of Artificial Intelligence should make users' life easier but what principles should be main in such apps? Arkenea developers have consulted the specialists that created programs successfully using Artificial Intelligence. The successful app using Artificial Intelligence gives a "wow-effect", the feeling of magic, the breakthrough that wasn't possible earlier.

Intel is now more than just a PC company. At industry events, the company's keynotes feature drones flying around, robots walking on stage and musicians creating tunes from wearables. The chip maker is helping BMW build an autonomous car, will sell modems to Apple, and is leading the development of next-generation 5G cellular networks. For all these new markets, it will provide chip and data-center technologies. The transformation is happening partly under the leadership of Venkata Renduchintala, president of the Client and Internet of Things (IoT) Businesses and Systems Architecture Group at Intel.

Software developers are turning cars into rolling personal computers. Lots of attention is still paid to horsepower, curves in the metal, and giving drivers the ultimate creature comfort behind the wheel: the ability to relax and let the car take over. But even as the industry accelerates toward a self-driving future, it's the touch screen in the dashboard and the slick smartphone app that increasingly sway buyers' decisions in the showroom. Many vehicle models now offer versions of the iPhone or Android interface in the car's touch screen, giving users the familiar look and feel of their smartphones. Meanwhile, app developers are leveraging the car-phone link and improved voice-recognition systems to offer extras such as music streaming and the ability to send or receive text messages with hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.

This spring, Kik, a messaging app with 275 million registered users, launched a bot store for brands and publishers to build their own bots that deliver services to users. Sephora and H&M have kik-powered bots that help shoppers browse and buy their products. Taco Bell showed off its TacoBot, a way to use the messaging app Slack to place a meal order. Amazon introduced its Echo, Google announced Allo, Facebook built their bot engine on top of their Messenger (and it is capable now of accepting payments!). Recently, Microsoft launched their Bot Framework that allows developers to write bot code once and, using the Microsoft Bot Connector, deploy on multiple channels, including Skype, Slack, and SMS.

Web 2.0 was a social revolution: many hands make light work. In stark contrast, the current revolution, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is industrial: the automation of tasks displaces human work. But trite definitions don't prepare us for change. Whatever you call it, our digital economy is in the midst of profound changes. By placing these changes within the frame of industrial manufacturing, the true values and motivations that underlie them than are illuminated.

Keeping users around is not. Since Facebook Messenger bots launched at F8 in April 2016, over 30,000 bots have been created. Major brands like ESPN, Star Wars, and Yelp have released apps on Apple's iMessage. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have all heavily invested in platforms for bots and conversational and voice experiences. Pandorabots, one of the oldest chatbot platforms, boasts over 285,000 bots made by over 225,000 developers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has already transformed our lives--from the autonomous cars on the roads to the robotic vacuums and smart thermostats in our homes. Over the next 15 years, AI technologies will continue to make inroads in nearly every area of our lives, from education to entertainment, health care to security. The question is, are we ready? Do we have the answers to the legal and ethical quandaries that will certainly arise from the increasing integration of AI into our daily lives? Are we even asking the right questions? Now, a panel of academics and industry thinkers has looked ahead to 2030 to forecast how advances in AI might affect life in a typical North American city and spark discussion about how to ensure the safe, fair, and beneficial development of these rapidly developing technologies.