The ability to make hands-free phone calls through Google Home can be a great convenience once you get used to doing it. However, hands-free calling was limited because you couldn't communicate with automated systems that ask you to speak or press a number to choose a menu option. Android Police reports that this limitation has been overcome. The change is undocumented and Google's help page says it hasn't been implemented yet, but I tested it and it works. When you're in a menu system, say "Hey Google, press [number]".

The healthcare industry has been around for millennia. Although much has changed in the way it currently functions, it needs to transform into something better to serve the sick. To put it in simpler terms, the healthcare industry needs a new nervous system to function efficiently. This is where artificial intelligence comes into the picture. In healthcare, artificial intelligence has seen a consistent rise in adoption.

The message of many things in America is "Like this or die." The camera is a small, white, curvilinear monolith on a pedestal. Inside its smooth casing are a microphone, a speaker, and an eye-like lens. After I set it up on a shelf, it tells me to look straight at it and to be sure to smile! The light blinks and then the camera flashes. A head-to-toe picture appears on my phone of a view I'm only used to seeing in large mirrors: me, standing awkwardly in my apartment, wearing a very average weekday outfit. The background is blurred like evidence from a crime scene. It is not a flattering image. Amazon's Echo Look, currently available by invitation only but also on eBay, allows you to take hands-free selfies and evaluate your fashion choices. "Now Alexa helps you look your best," the product description promises. Stand in front of the camera, take photos of two different outfits with the Echo Look, and then select the best ones on your phone's Echo Look app. Within about a minute, Alexa will tell you which set of clothes looks better, processed by style-analyzing algorithms and some assistance from humans.

Samsung has been teasing its upgraded Bixby 2.0 assistant for several months now, but when is it actually going to show up in something you can buy? The company's AI research center head Gray G. Lee told the Korea Herald that the new AI helper will arrive with the upcoming flagship phone in the second half of 2018 -- in other words, the next Galaxy Note. While Lee didn't show all of Samsung's cards, he promised better natural language processing, faster responses and better results in noisy environments. As outlined last October, Bixby 2.0 should make use of Samsung's Viv acquisition to both encourage more conversational commands as well as deep linking, multiple users and more. It's not certain if everything mentioned at Bixby 2.0's unveiling will make the cut.

As seen with the offerings from mega tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon.com, Facebook and Google, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is rapidly becoming mainstream. Yet much of the technologies have been for consumer applications. Well, things often do not move as fast. However, there are some enterprise software companies that have been well ahead of the curve.

After repeatedly failing to gain traction in the music streaming space, Google's latest attempt is finally here. YouTube Music, first reported last month, is set to launch Tuesday and replace Google Play Music as the company's music subscription service. Some of its features might look awfully familiar to users of Spotify or Apple Music. YouTube Music, for example, borrows its pricing model from Spotify with a free tier to attract new potential subscribers to the platform and a $9.99 per month paid tier that offers ad-free listening, music downloads, and the ability to play music in the background on your mobile device. While both Spotify and Apple Music aim to intelligently learn from your listening habits to recommend songs you'll also like, Google takes this a step further.

AI is everywhere these days. It powers our personal assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, prevents credit card fraud, and even successfully overturns parking fines. With each passing month, AI becomes ever more integral to our world. Last week we learned how AI is changing the job of designers. But the impact goes further than that.

"Hey Siri, what is IIoT?" Every time you ask Siri, you get an accurate answer. Wonder how your virtual assistant suggests, thinks and talks like a human being? Because it has been taught that way through machine learning. Finance, retail and healthcare are just a few of the many industries that are benefitted by machine learning.

Today's AI technologies are more intelligent and contextual than ever before. The rise of digital assistants like Alexa and Siri that allow us to carry out a myriad of tasks with minimal effort – has made many consumers wonder "why can't everything be this easy?". As a result, businesses are starting to tap into this trend and are seeing the huge potential AI – not just to help the customer journey, but also to streamline processes, reduce costs and increase productivity of their service agents. Today, AI is serving on the frontlines of customer service, handling the repetitive tasks that previously took up the majority of an agent's time – freeing them up to focus their time and energy on more complex and high-value engagements. See also: AI's impact on customer experience Additionally, AI is playing co-pilot to the agents – helping them deliver more personalized service by prompting them with information on a customer's history with the brand, preferences, and sharing suggestions and offers that particular customer may appreciate.

Careful with using Alexa or Google around your pet birds -- your feathered friend might end up ordering up some crackers. An African grey Congo parrot in Florida has apparently mastered Amazon's Alexa digital home assistant and has already moved on to conquering Google Home. Not so nice -- the first thing Petra the parrot learned to do was to order all the lights off, at random. "First, you're like half awake and … like, 'Was that a dream? The parrot has even earned its own YouTube channel, currently at more than 13,000 subscribers. Some of the more meta videos show Petra watching her own interviews on television, Facetiming with other parrots, and telling the dog to "Dance!