Artificial intelligence (AI) is in vogue. It's almost impossible to read an article in any media outlet that doesn't mention AI and the possibility it will reshape the world in which we live. In fact, according to research conducted by AT&T, AI has the potential to double GDP growth across geographies by 2035. Consumers are already interacting with a variety of low-level AI assistants, such as Siri, Cortana, and Alexa. With respect to the telecom sector, AI – supported by machine learning (ML) – is fundamental to controlling and operating communications networks of the future.

It's the beginning of September (and no, I don't know how that happened either), and as the summer lull winds to a close and we prepare for a renewed frenzy of activity, it's a good moment to take stock of the year so far. Last month, two different articles were published looking back over some of the key trends we've seen in 2018 with regard to emerging technology and digital transformation, and comparing them to what was predicted. One was a piece by Forbes contributor Daniel Newman of CMO Network, who revisited his predictions for digital transformation in 2018 in light of the past eight months, to see where we are with some of 2018's most potentially transformative technologies. It takes a broadly optimistic view of the technologies that are meant to be shaking up the digital world in 2018, with a few caveats. The other was by The Register's Andrew Orlowski, written in response to the publication of Gartner's annual'Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle', which revealed that a number of the most "hyped" technologies from last year have vanished from this year's chart.

Accenture Introduces Ella and Ethan, AI Bots to Improve a Patient's Health and Care Using the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform NEW YORK; Sept. 21, 2018 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has enhanced the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform with the addition of Ella and Ethan, two interactive virtual-assistant bots that use artificial intelligence (AI) to constantly learn and make intelligent recommendations for interactions between life sciences companies, patients, health care providers (HCPs) and caregivers. Designed to help improve a patient's health and overall experience, the bots are part of Accenture's Salesforce Fullforce Solutions powered by Salesforce Health Cloud and Einstein AI, as well as Amazon's Alexa. The Ella and Ethan bots are part of the Patient Engagement Support solution in the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform, a digital health solution that supports patients throughout their healthcare experience, from participation in clinical trials through managing ongoing treatment and wellness. The bots are designed to deliver a more personalized patient experience and better patient support. Ella is a virtual care assistant for patients that provides medication reminders, vitals tracking and appointment scheduling.

Accenture Introduces Ella and Ethan, AI Bots to Improve a Patient's Health and Care Using the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform NEW YORK; Sept. 21, 2018 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has enhanced the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform with the addition of Ella and Ethan, two interactive virtual-assistant bots that use artificial intelligence (AI) to constantly learn and make intelligent recommendations for interactions between life sciences companies, patients, health care providers (HCPs) and caregivers. Designed to help improve a patient's health and overall experience, the bots are part of Accenture's Salesforce Fullforce Solutions powered by Salesforce Health Cloud and Einstein AI, as well as Amazon's Alexa. The Ella and Ethan bots are part of the Patient Engagement Support solution in the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform, a digital health solution that supports patients throughout their healthcare experience, from participation in clinical trials through managing ongoing treatment and wellness. The bots are designed to deliver a more personalized patient experience and better patient support. Ella is a virtual care assistant for patients that provides medication reminders, vitals tracking and appointment scheduling.

Then Luca BRUNI will introduce you to our speakers and special guests. Then Luca BRUNI will introduce you to our speakers and special guests.

If you've ever shopped online (*cough* Amazon *cough*), you've probably experienced the "vacuum cleaner effect". You carefully buy one expensive item (e.g. a vacuum cleaner) and then you receive dozens of recommendations for other vacuum cleaners to buy: by email, everywhere on the retailer's website, or sometimes in the ads you see on other websites. In other terms, Amazon is a 1 trillion dollar company that employs hundreds of data scientists and is incapable of understanding that if you bought an expensive appliance, buying another one of the same category in the next weeks is what you're *least* likely to do! But let's think about the problem for a second. Suggesting item that are similar to what you just bought is actually the core feature of recommendation algorithms!

This article was written by Harry Chiang, a Financial Analyst at I Know First. "The big paradox here is that people think technology will lead to banking becoming more and more automated and less and less personalized, but what we've seen coming through here is the view that technology will actually help banking become a lot more personalized." Over the past few years, news articles have casually floated the term'Artificial Intelligence' around at an increasing rate. It's one of those buzzwords that somehow finds its way in to every tech-related conversation. Even the least tech-savvy person has a vague notion of what it is. The problem is, some of the more tech-savvy person don't have a much clearer notion of what it is either. The definition of AI ranges and has vague boundaries.

If you can ask Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa to search databases for restaurants and obscure bands, why can't you ask them to search or update the databases of your enterprise resource planning (ERP) or human resources (HR) applications? This question, or something like it, crossed the minds of Jorge Rimblas and Christoph Ruepprich--both of whom are database developers and Oracle ACEs. They each took the initiative to answer the question and learned lessons along the way. "It's a great time to be a database developer," says Rimblas, who has worked with Oracle Database since 1995. "But you have to keep learning," he says.

BlockAip will operate in conjunction with a self-taught Artificial Intelligence called Felix. It will be serving as a personal assistant like Siri or Cortana. Felix will be able to make an appointment, book and buy tickets, reserve dinners in restaurants, purchase virtual goods and pay users' regular bills. Furthermore, AI will be able to type messages, write stories or news, search for friends, groups, events, popular articles, videos, make calls, etc. Yet, Felix can become a friend to whom users can talk privately.

Whether we're working side-by-side with autonomous robots on the factory floor, spreading the happy news about a new addition to the family on Facebook, or asking Siri to help us get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, all aspects of our lives are closely connected to technology in one way or another. Some of those "connections" are downright threatening. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, which includes developments in previously disjointed fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, and genetics and biotechnology, is expected to cause widespread disruption not only to business models but also to labor markets over the next five years, the World Economic Forum reports, with "enormous change predicted in the skill sets needed to thrive in the new landscape." According to an Oxford study, developed nations can expect to see job loss rates of up to 47% within the next 25 years. Additionally, a Pew Research Center study found that "robotics and artificial intelligence will permeate wide segments of daily life by 2025, with huge implications for a range of industries such as healthcare, transport and logistics, customer service, and home maintenance."