Intelligent technology is having a significant impact on the way customers interact with the public sector. In this article the experts at Agilisys offer an opinion on the shape of citizen interactions to come. In its recent report, The Future of Jobs, the World Economic Forum (WEF) suggested that automation, software and robots are not just changing skills requirements but replacing certain jobs altogether. While this may be worrying for those with manual, repetitive or labour-intensive jobs, it's important to focus on the 2.1 million new jobs that will be created in more specialised areas. Too often shrouded in mystery and fear, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and intelligent automation could actually revitalise innovation and revolutionise working practices.

If you're afraid of spiders, then you might find Siemens's vision for future manufacturing lines a bit alarming. In a lab in Princeton, New Jersey, the company's researchers are testing spider-like robots that extrude not silk but plastic, thanks to portable 3-D printers. The robots can work together autonomously to create simple objects. The work is at an early stage, but it hints at where manufacturing may be headed, thanks to more sophisticated robot hardware, smarter control software, and new ways of forming components using 3-D printing. Unlike a conventional robotic production line, which has to be carefully reconfigured for each new product, a team of mobile manufacturing bots would simply be given the latest design and left to go to work. Livio Dalloro, head of product design, modeling, and simulation at Siemens, says that the robots (which, unlike actual spiders, have only six legs) can currently produce only very simple objects, like cubes, but the idea is that they would eventually clamber around a larger, more complex object, building it as they go.

Meet OceanOne, a robot avatar that lets humans explore deep under the Ocean's surface, without any of the dangers or time limits associated with diving. While a human diver is constrained by pesky things like air and pressure when doing underwater research or excavations, a robot can stay underwater for much longer, collecting samples in hostile underwater environments. OceanOne was tested at the archeological site of the shipwreck La Lune off the coast of France. La Lune, a flagship that sank in the Mediterranean in 1664. It lies under 300 feet of water, far beyond the reach of recreational SCUBA divers, who limit themselves to 130 feet.

More than two months after Google removed paid ads from the right side of its search engine result page (SERP), Adobe has some encouraging news. Overall, the change seems to generated a positive impact for most advertisers and consumers. It will also (not surprisingly) likely result in a slight increase to Google's revenue, Adobe found. "We didn't find a change in terms of click value," said Sid Shah, who heads up web analytics and digital strategy and insights at Adobe. "Because there are now fewer ad positions, there is less clutter and consumers are clicking on ads with a higher propensity. They are more prone to click."

The company said that the platform, that brings machine learning together with'deep knowledge of an organisation', will enable businesses to continuously reinvent their system landscapes and lower maintenance cost of assets. Coupled with Aikido service offerings, Mana will help clients capture knowledge while delivering new and delightful experiences to their end users, it said. "Over the last 35 years, Infosys has maintained, operated and managed systems with global clients across every industry. Building on this deep experience, Infosys has recognised the need to bring artificial intelligence to the enterprise in a meaningful and purposeful way," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Vishal Sikka said at Infosys Confluence 2016. Mana leverages the power of automation for repetitive tasks and lower cost of maintenance, freeing people to focus on the higher value work and on breakthrough innovation, he added.

Irish chip maker Movidius has created the world's first deep learning USB stick that can add artificial intelligence (AI) to future products from self-driving cars to robots, and drones that will learn to think for themselves. Entitled the Fathom Neural Compute Stick, the device will sell for less than 100 and will allow powerful neural networks to be moved out of the cloud and deployed on new products like robots and drones. It is the latest breakthrough for the Dublin company, which has been winning major multi-million dollar deals with Google and drone maker DJI. 'With Fathom, every robot, big and small, can now have state-of-the-art vision capabilities' – DR YANN LECUN, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY "Any organisation can now add deep learning or machine intelligence to devices using the USB stick and create products that will be accessible to broader markets," Movidius co-founder David Moloney told Siliconrepublic.com. "We've already seen how the auto industry has been outflanked by Tesla ...

I receive flight options with times and prices curated from my previous travel behavior. No phone, email or search bar necessary; I'm using the text-based service Operator, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that pairs customers with a personal concierge to help with tracking down hard-to-find products. "I need an affordable flight from New York to San Francisco anytime next week," I tell the Operator. "Would you like a direct flight that leaves in the AM from JFK and an aisle seat?" the Operator responds. Either AM or PM is fine."

A group of undergrads at Brigham Young University in Utah have built an AI machine that can play on a modified foosball table. In a recent game, the machine defeated a human player four to one. "It's not that we need a computerized foosball table, but it is a small example of a much larger problem," computer engineering student Nathan Warner said in a video. In the future, computers will have to react to physical surroundings in more nuanced ways. They'll be inside of things like self-driving cars and robotic assistants.

The tech icon was helping launch the Advance Queensland Innovation and Investment Summit on Thursday, where the government hoped to foster the seeds of the next Apple, Google or major AI player. "A machine doesn't yet say'what's an obstacle of the world, what's a problem of the world that needs solving and what is an approach I could take to solve it?' " he told the audience. "We're just at the verge of where the machines may take off and go much further than even we humans could make them go. "It is a new revolution in my mind, the revolution of artificial intelligence, machines that will learn, that will be able to do things much better than we know how to tell them."

How does the image-recognition technology in a self-driving car respond to a blurred shape suddenly appearing on the road? Researchers from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that machines can learn to respond to unfamiliar objects like human beings would. Imagine heading home in your self-driving car. The rain is falling in torrents and visibility is poor. All of a sudden, a blurred shape appears on the road.