AI has disrupted the retail industry, and that's a good thing. Consumer behavior is increasingly managed by AI, leading to an unparalleled online shopping experience. AI-powered tools have made it easier for even non-techie CMO's to deliver a highly personalized experience by anticipating consumer needs and making real-time predictions. AI-powered marketing is helping marketers to satisfy increasing customer expectations. It's with the help of artificial intelligence that even small- and mid-scale retailers are able to provide an exceptional one-to-one customer experience like Amazon, Walmart and Nordstrom.

Apple is finally selling the HomePod, its smart speaker. The round, voice-controlled sound system was initially revealed in June and was supposed to go on sale before the end of the year. It wasn't initially clear when Apple would start selling the device, since it only said that pre-orders would open at some point today. But they went live at lunchtime, at the same time in all the countries it will be sold in. It won't actually arrive until next Friday, when it is also expected to appear in Apple Stores, though it's still not clear whether you'll actually be able to listen to it in those stores.

He may be one of the most famous figures in history, but it appears the Google Home smart speaker doesn't know who Jesus is. At least, that's according to several outraged users who have accused Google of deliberately filtering its results to fit its own agenda. They claim that despite not providing any details about Jesus, the smart speaker can still identify Buddha, Muhammad and Satan. When people asked their speaker'Who is Jesus?' the general response from Google Home seems to be'I'm not sure how to help you with that.' One television producer in Nashville compared the theological knowledge of Google Home and Amazon Alexa during a Facebook Live video.

You don't speak Spanish and he doesn't speak English. However, you still communicate with a translator. Not a human being, per se, but earphones paired to your phone. The Google Pixel Buds can translate languages in real time when paired to Pixel 2 phones. Just like Siri can make bookings, Alexa can order groceries and Bixby can set appointments using voice commands.

We started the contest by asking the assistants basic questions about topics like the weather forecast, conversions between different measurements, and trivia. Every assistant could answer a simple query about the weather and provide the forecast for the next few days. We did notice some very slight variations in the responses, probably because these apps rely on different sources. Alexa gave the most useful information in the shortest time, which makes sense--as a voice-only program, it has to be as succinct as possible. They could even update us on the time in different time zones--though we should knock points off for Siri and Cortana, which didn't include the day as well as the time in their spoken responses, something you need to know if a region is a day ahead of or behind you.

The ability of artificial intelligence to make ethically sound decisions is a hot topic in debates around the world. The issue is particularly prevalent in discussions on the future of autonomous cars, but it spans to include ethical conundrums similar to those depicted in sci-fi flicks like Blade Runner. These high-level debates are mainly about a future that's still years away, but it is true that AI is already becoming part of our lives. Think Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and the photo-sorting function on many smartphones. The popularity of technologies like these already influences how people think about machine intelligence.

The rise of Machine Learning (ML) has the potential to dramatically impact how business as we know it operates. It is a vast and rapidly developing field – and still a new concept for most. ML, as a subset of artificial intelligence, can learn and predict outcomes providing tangible benefits like recommendation engines, fraud detection, security threat detection, personalized content and more. According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, Machine Learning's greatest potential across industries include improving forecasting and predicting outcomes. It's potential to deliver real-time optimization across industries will quickly accelerate in the coming years.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already affecting our lives in many ways. From intelligent video curation on Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) YouTube and Google web search to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) Siri personal assistant, AI is already making our lives easier. AI can also help corporations and customers fight against rapidly evolving cyberthreats. For instance, FireEye's (NASDAQ:FEYE) Helix cybersecurity platform is able to automate threat detection and prevention with the help of this emerging technology. The early adoption of AI by Alphabet, Apple, and FireEye could help them steal a march over rivals.

Artificial intelligence is introducing itself in our lives, from chatbots like Siri to complex tools that replicate our tastes, robots are learning from us and they might become our best travel mates. Just few days ago, Google revealed in its I / O conference its effort to focus totally on AI, something already anticipated when it introduces the predictive autocomplete in Search. One of the innovations is the update of Google Assistant, an application that was born as Siri or Alexa, integrating the rest of the Google applications, as well as searches. This has enormous implications, since this application with the soul of a concierge can search our flights, reserve a table in a restaurant, buy our vacation package, as well as look for curiosities, send calendar invitations or make calls. Facebook, Google, Twitter and other leading mobile technology companies are recommending us where to go and what route to take according to the traffic in the area, adding our events to the calendar, and warning of possible strikes. Taking out a bit of stress can make our lives easier and one of the key areas that are redoubling their efforts in the construction of audiobots, chatbox and others bots is the travel industry.

Year 2017 has been one of the most exciting years of developers and technology lovers. Technologies such as big data, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, drones, autonomous vehicles, wearables, virtual reality, and smart homes are some of the fastest growing innovations. Gartner breaks down in its hype cycle of emerging technologies of year 2017 that shows AI, machine learning and deep learning are the focus while autonomous vehicles, virtual assistants, computer security, blockchain and cognitive computing is on the rise. The below graph indicates the lifetime of various technologies. In this article, I will focus on the cutting-edge technologies that are directly related to jobs and expected to grow at a faster pace than previously anticipated.