In case you somehow missed the dire predictions regarding artificial intelligence: AI is coming for our jobs. Over 10 percent of positions currently occupied by humans will be eliminated by cheaper, more efficient automated replacements, and experts agree AI could make redundant as many as 75 million jobs by 2025. With new reports sounding the alarm bells on what seems a daily basis, it's all too easy to get caught up in the negativity. But as we reflect back on a few of AI's achievements in 2018, I'd argue it's tough not to be encouraged by the good it can do -- specifically, the ways AI can augment skilled humans. Recall Unanimous AI, a startup headquartered in San Francisco and founded by Stanford-educated computer scientist and CEO Louis Rosenberg.

In the fourth post in our series of how to get started with conversational AI, we take a look at the key aspects for ensuring a positive result on your conversational AI journey. We covered the topic recently in a webinar given by our VP of Global Customer Services, Darren Ford and below is a partial transcript highlighting his 5 Golden Rules for Success. If you'd like to listen to the webinar in full including examples of how these golden rules have been applied in real-world implementations then you can watch the replay here. If you can't articulate the business case and value you want to achieve from the conversational AI application, don't start the project. Or at the very least, be transparent with the partner or third-party supplier and work collaboratively with them to help define the value you expect to achieve. The idea is to use this as the lighthouse to guide you towards business success and to help you make design decisions in order to deploy the right technology.

Another year has passed and humanity, for better or worse, remains in charge of the planet. Unfortunately for the robots, TNW has it on good authority they won't take over next year either. In the meantime, here's what the experts think will happen in 2019: Dialpad, an AI startup created by the original founders of Google Voice, tells TNW that all the hype over robot assistants that can make calls on your behalf may be a bit premature. Etienne Manderscheid, VP AI, Machine Learning, for the company says "robots may attempt to sound human next year, but this will work for few domains in 2019." Despite the hype brought on by Google Duplex and resulting conversations around speech synthesis, true text-to-speech technology will not be able to carry on conversations outside of the specific domains they're built around for at least another few years.

As on today, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are well and truly poised to make the work of healthcare providers more logical & streamlined than repetitive. The technology is helping shape personalized healthcare services while significantly reducing the time to look for information that is critical to decision making and facilitating better care for patients. Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare has immense potential to improve costs, the quality of services, and access to them. According to CIO, AI-powered healthcare are driving meaningful changes across the entire patient journey. But, clinical applications of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare are rare – a trend we expect to change soon.

Humans want to speak to machines the same way they speak to each other -- in natural language, not the language... You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid. This email address is already registered. You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have been the most discussed amongst other emerging technologies of 2018, adding the extra zing to the coffee breaks of technocrats. With global leaders like Amazon, Google and Microsoft ramping up resources for research in these fields, the trend is definitely not going to dip down anytime soon. In fact, Google is offering free online training to enhance knowledge and build capabilities. Analysts believe, 2019 is going to be the year for business enterprises who have been waiting to finally get on board to witness a plethora of advancements for their industry. What are the technology disruptions we expect next year?

Service robots for personal and domestic use continue to grow. The forecast from 2016 through 2019 is expected to be $22 billion. Julian Jagtenberg, Co-Founder and Head of Growth, Somnox created a robot that has one job, to help you sleep better. The Dutch startup, with around $282k in funding, wants to reduce the effects of sleep deprivation with their robot that simulates natural breathing as you hold the robot to fall asleep. Jagtenberg looks at the shift from industrial to home robotics and the emergence of a new species in his predictions for robotics in 2019.

It's now particularly easy to donate to a worthy cause. Google Assistant has quietly introduced support for donations, whether it's through your phone or a smart speaker like the Home Hub. Ask Google to "make a donation" in the US and it'll let you pick a monetary amount and charity (from a group of recommended organizations). So long as you've enabled payments in Assistant, a contribution could be just moments away. On top of the Payments requirement, you'll still have to confirm a donation on your phone if you've used a smart speaker.

Since the humble beginning of the World Wide Web in 1969 when the first message was sent over ARPANET to today, the Web is ever changing. Crediting the invention of the internet to a single person is impossible -- many different scientists and technology gurus contributed different elements to make it what it is today, taking the future of the web to heights still unseen. When the internet first became accessible to the general public in the 80s, people needed to know some basic DOS coding and most of the information available was educational. Windows and Apple created systems making computer use more accessible and easier than ever before. By the 90s, AOL came on the scene.

LOS ANGELES--The poster at one of the flashy new Amazon Books stores was inviting. "Smart Home Made Easy -- want to get started but don't know where to start?" I think most customers there would raise their hands and say, "That's me." Amazon's list put hard-to-understand tech geekdom into words we all get. What it didn't do was spell out the dollars that would be needed to be invested or how some of this stuff might work.