There's been a huge amount of focus on the improvements artificial intelligence can make to individual consumers, Dave Damer, CEO and Founder of Testfire Labs, explores the strategic productivity gains that could be recognized by SMEs, corporates, and other organizations. Spend any time reading about artificial intelligence (AI), and you might think all the innovation is in the consumer space. While there's plenty of exciting development -- the growing skills of Alexa, the natural language processing (NLP) of Google Assistant, or the ubiquity of Siri, that's only a fraction of what AI and NLP can do. There's another, seemingly intractable problem where AI and NLP could be revolutionary -- business productivity, specifically the area that gets a big collective eye roll from employees -- meetings. The idea of most meetings is to draw people together, discuss ideas and options, create a consensus, and develop actions to achieve business tasks. That's the ideal, the reality is a little different: This is compounded as workforces become more culturally and geographically diverse.

With WWDC a couple days out, we're coming up on one year since Apple first showed off its glitzy answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers. It took over 8 months from then for the HomePod to finally hit shelves and it took up until a couple of days ago for all the promised functionality to arrive. Four months since launch, it's clear Apple delivered some awesome hardware, but there are plenty of features I want to see the HomePod pick up when Apple comes to the stage at its annual developer conference to talk iOS 12. For all the criticisms levied against the device, the most weighty has been the fact that there isn't even a vague reason to consider buying the speaker unless you are an Apple Music subscriber. For Apple Watch LTE users who want to listen to non-Apple Music tunes the same is true to a lesser degree.

Less Hal and more Her, responding warmly to the feelings of others may no longer be a uniquely animal quality. Empathetic responses are being integrated into artificial intelligence and robotics, raising sticky ethical questions. The shift can be subtle or overt -- from emotionally appropriate gestures from your smartphone's voice assistant, to comforting robotics in clinical situations. For instance, Danielle Krettek, the founder of Google's Empathy Lab, said her work has contributed to some of the Google Assistant's apparent ability to attune to your mood. "When you say, 'I'm feeling depressed', instead of giving you a description of what depression is, it [might say], 'you know what, a lot of people feel that. You're not alone'," she explained at the design conference Semi Permanent in Sydney.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference is always full of surprises. USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham previews what we can expect in Talking Tech. The new iPhone X is seen on display at the Apple Union Square store on Nov. 3, 2017, in San Francisco. The iPhone X's lush screen, facial-recognition skills and $1,000 price tag are breaking new ground in Apple's marquee product line. Now, the much-anticipated device is testing the patience of consumers and investors as demand outstrips suppliers' capacity.

The main reason most people get an Amazon Echo, with its onboard AI servant Alexa, is convenience. But, after a family in Oregon found out Alexa recorded at least one private conversation and sent it to a contact in their address book, you might want to sacrifice convenience for privacy and personal security. Or, maybe you should at least keep the microphone turned off when not in use. Not very convenient, I know. Danielle (who identified herself only by her first name) and her family were going about their normal lives when her husband's employee unexpectedly called them and urged them to turn off all the Amazon devices in their home.

Hinge, the dating app that promised a better set of prospects by suggesting matches who share Facebook friends, is about to radically change its course: it's ditching its requirement that users log in with Facebook. The change will go into effect on Monday, June 5th on Android, followed by a June 12th release on iOS. While the option to use Facebook won't be fully removed, users will instead be able to choose to authenticate using their phone number, the company says. The decision was prompted by ongoing requests from users who have asked for a non-Facebook login option, Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod says. This is especially important to the company as people "move away from Facebook and onto other platforms," he notes.

Alexa, Google Home, and other rapidly advancing digital assistants have increased customers' willingness to engage with machines as they have come to not only expect, but appreciate their conversational nature. This attitude shift is transforming how traditional call centers should be doing business – using conversational AI bots to deliver positive user experiences and operational savings. Identifying where and how to implement Artificial Intelligence is one of the biggest challenges companies face when considering self-service. Read on to see how SmartAction has solved this issue, and many more, to enable true integration of AI into call center operations. SmartAction was founded as an artificial intelligence research company and has since evolved into the leading provider of AI-powered customer self-service solutions.

Analysts believe Apple will try to inject more artificial intelligence and other new powers into Siri to make it more competitive with Google's digital assistant and Amazon's Alexa. Apple just gave its HomePod smart speaker new features, including calendar reminders -- something Google and Amazon devices have long offered. Apple has been emphasizing the HomePod's high-fidelity acoustics, including the ability to pair two devices in stereo mode, in an effort to distinguish its product from Google's and Amazon's speakers, which primarily serve as hubs for those companies' voice-activated assistants. Monday's preview could include more on that front.

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. We considered more than 20 smart-light-bulb systems and then spent eight weeks testing 10 contenders, confounding a family of four by constantly changing how their lights worked. After all that, we determined that the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 is the best all-around smart LED bulb. Hue lets you change your lighting color easily and does everything other smart light bulbs do, and it's also part of a larger product and app ecosystem, allowing for more flexibility and creativity than any other smart bulb we tested. It's not the cheapest bulb we tested, but its reliable performance and wide compatibility make it a solid choice for any smart-home enthusiast or newbie. Adding a set of smart light bulbs is an easy way to get started building a smart-home system. We researched all the standard A19-style smart bulbs (the kind that fit traditional lamps and fixtures), and then tested more than 10 models and the systems they work with. In the end, the first popular smart bulb is still the one that outshines (sorry about that) all the others. Unless you already have an Echo Plus, the Hue system requires the use of a separate Hue Bridge, which supports a home of 50 bulbs (available individually) but does add to the overall cost. The Philips Hue setup is simple (we recommend the White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter Kit, which packages a Hue Bridge and either three or four bulbs), and the bulbs' wide interoperability with other apps and smart-home systems makes the Hue series the most flexible and feature-rich smart bulb available. If you're set on a color-changing bulb but insist on more light output, the LIFX Gen 3 beats any color-changing bulb we tried. An individual LIFX bulb is a little more expensive than a Hue, but each LIFX is brighter, so you might be able to get away with fewer bulbs to color-wash your room.

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next week, beginning with a big keynote speech at 10 a.m. This event, a five-day conference at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, focuses on developers and the changes in Apple's software that will affect their work. Apple's other big annual event typically occurs in September and focuses on the unveiling of new iPhones and Apple Watches. Often Apple executives also take time during WWDC to update people on certain new services and products outside of smartphones and smartwatches. For example, last year Apple unveiled its HomePod smart speaker, the iPad Pro 10.5, updates to the MacBook line, updates to the iMac line, and an all-new iMac Pro.