I don't mind letting your programs see my private data as long as I get something useful in exchange. But that's not what happens. A former co-worker told me once: "Everyone loves collecting data, but nobody loves analyzing it later." This claim is almost shocking, but people who have been involved in data collection and analysis have all seen it. It starts with a brilliant idea: we'll collect information about every click someone makes on every page in our app! And we'll track how long they hesitate over a particular choice! And how often they use the back button!

Human creativity will be key to avoiding the diminishing returns of technology and data as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning become an everyday part of our marketing lives. That's the view of IDC research director, Gerry Murray, who took to the stage as the keynote of CMO and CIO's recent Executive Connections events in Melbourne and Sydney to share how AI use cases are starting to proliferate across the marketing and customer engagement sphere. Importantly, he also discussed what marketing and technology leaders should be doing to realise their potential. As Murray pointed out, AI is going into every single marketing tool out there today, and he noted more than 80 use cases identified by IDC as part of recent research. These stretch from virtual sales reps and social sentiment analysis, through to lead scoring, AI-powered content marketing, chatbots, recommendation engines and attribution analysis.

The retail category as a whole will spend $5.9 billion this year on tools like automated customer service agents and product recommendation generators, while the banking sector is set to put $5.6 billion toward more security-oriented AI uses like fraud prevention and threat intelligence, according to the report. Total spending from businesses on AI is projected to reach nearly $35.8 billion in 2019--a 44 percent increase from last year--and $79.2 billion by 2022. The retail industry's investment in AI comes as ecommerce companies struggle to compete with Amazon's personalized recommendation and pricing algorithms and increasingly cut out traditional retailers to sell directly to consumers. Efficiency in such a cutthroat environment requires the constant processing of customer and transaction data often made possible by machine learning. Meanwhile, banks see AI as a means to cut costs and beef up effectiveness around expensive security and compliance operations, which are complex but quantitative enough for AI functions to handle. All told, the top-funded use cases included automated customer service agents ($4.5 billion worldwide), sales process recommendation and automation ($2.7 billion) and automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($2.7 billion).

Siri, Alexa, Google Home--technology that parses language is increasingly finding its way into everyday life. Boris Katz, a principal research scientist at MIT, isn't that impressed. Over the past 40 years, Katz has made key contributions to the linguistic abilities of machines. In the 1980s, he developed START, a system capable of responding to naturally phrased queries. The ideas used in START helped IBM's Watson win on Jeopardy!

Technology promises a future that isn't tied down by the limitations of flesh. Communication travels further and faster than legs can run, and data beamed into space will live longer than any of its creators. Devices that respond to our voices make hands less necessary. But the digital assistants many of us rely on inadvertently perpetuate the old restrictions of the human form. If Siri has no body, why does she sound like a woman?

Big innovations in home appliances can offer builders the opportunity to construct the smart home that buyers are seeking. Two new examples come from KitchenAid and Whirlpool. The KitchenAid Smart Oven with Powered Attachments, the Whirlpool Smart Front Control Range, and the KitchenAid Limited Edition 36" 6-Burner Dual Fuel Freestanding, Commercial Style Range, demonstrate the innovation of the IoT (Internet of Things). The KitchenAid Smart Oven with Powered Attachments will connect to the downloadable Yummly app, where users can receive as well as log recipes, update their shopping list, and have food delivered to their home. Other features also include the Even-Heat True Convection Oven, a 4.5-inch LCD display, connectivity to the KitchenAid app, which offers notifications of the system's status, and the option to give voice commands through Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa.

Gartner has ranked AI as its most transformative trend for 2019. If you're not already focusing on AI as part of your strategy, now is the time to start. Forget about self-driving cars and Siri for a moment. AI's immediate impact on your business comes from the ability to apply it to countless business processes, across startlingly different areas of workplace operations, from the office to the factory floor. For example, at Cisco we're already using it to optimise our procurement, and through our Mi-Idea innovation centre, we've shown how AI machine vision can verify whether employees are wearing the right safety gear in the industrial workplace.

Artificial Intelligence is nowadays one of the most popular topics to discus upon. It only continues to significantly increase in its role in business and daily life in general. It is important to discuss that what role women are likely to play in the world of Artificial Intelligence, writes Nandita Koshal, Research Associate, International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building, O P Jindal Global University. AI and IoT technologies are increasingly being fashioned on women and their perceived roles. They play the role of our guide as GPS that takes us to our destination; as Cortana and Siri they become our personal assistants who aid in expediting our day to day commitments; and as Alexa and Google play they become our companions and friends who respect and fulfil our requests.

You know you are in the digital age when you have to intervene between two robots arguing in your home, as happened to me recently when my Google Home Hub believed my Google Assistant on my Pixelbook was speaking to it rather than to me and they started misunderstanding each other. It struck me that I was in a very 21st century moment, asking two robots to listen. As with all new technology there will be new challenges, and opportunities, and where artificial intelligence is concerned, history would suggest the latter far outweighs the former. For anyone concerned about what artificial intelligence (AI) and automation might mean for their jobs they should remember that you cannot uninvent the internet. You can't choose not to do technology. As Tolkien once noted, 'The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out'.

IBM announced the development of a new solution designed to transform driving in cities. Announced the day after SEAT presented its concept car Minimó promising to revolutionize urban mobility, 'Mobility Advisor' uses IBM Watson AI to help urban citizens make informed decisions about their daily transportation options including cars, scooters, bikes and public transport. With its advanced cloud and AI technologies, IBM is helping us to innovate new approaches to mobility that will transform our business strategy while improving the lives of people living in urban areas. Currently under development and designed to run as a mobile app on 4G/5G networks, 'Mobility Advisor' uses IBM Watson Assistant to provide users with a conversational interface to plan and optimise routes and suggest the most suitable transportation options. With IBM Watson Machine Learning, 'Mobility Advisor' can learn a user's preferences and make personalized recommendations for how best to complete a journey. It incorporates the user's appointments and historical data about previous choices in order to suggest the best modes of transportation each time – even if that means leaving the car behind, walking, or using one of SEAT's e-Kick scooters for the part of the journey.