When analysts and media write about artificial intelligence (AI), most of them unfortunately only talk about machine learning. In doing so, they mention AI and machine learning in the same breath and thus equal AI with one single technology. This is wrong and a concerning progress. In particular, it is confusing the market during a time when 58 percent of organizations worldwide (according to Forrester) are still researching AI. However, AI is more than just machine learning and consists of several different components that provide intelligent solutions.

Amazon's Alexa is leading the AI assistant pack. Echo devices are dominating smart speaker sales, and that was before Amazon brought the devices to more than 80 nations around the world. To defend its crown, Amazon moved fast this year to outpace competitors like Google Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana. Apple's delayed HomePod is due out next year, while Samsung and Facebook are also reportedly planning to debut smart speakers. It can be challenging to keep up with all the features Alexa has added to stay ahead of some of the largest tech companies on the planet, so here's a rundown of everything Alexa learned to do this year.

Whilst Siri was the first mainstream voice assistant many of us became familiar with, there are many personal AI's coming onto the market to make our lives that little bit easier. Google Assistant which was initially released in 2016 is'your own personal google' - you can ask it questions, tell it to do things, and now it can even identify what song you're listening to on the radio similar to Shazam. The AI, which can be found on Google's Android phones and Google Home, is also one of the only voice assistants that hasn't been given a female name or exclusively a female voice, breaking the gender stereotypes of digital assistants being female helpers. Voice assistants historically have problems understanding users for a variety of reasons including accent, context, background noise and sentence structure, and Yariv Adan, Product Leader at Google Assistant is currently leading a team that's responsible for key pieces of the intelligence of the product, including the ability to understand context, to act proactively, to understand and respond to complex statements in natural language, to "see" using a camera, etc. There is of course an ideal intelligent assistant that everyone has in mind, and Google Assistant are trying to imagine the characteristics of this perfect AI and'come up with the baby steps we can build to get there.'

Artificial intelligence is no longer part of the imaginative minds of sci-fiction. If you were worried about some of the latest AI developments in 2017, 2018 does not look any better. One of the creepier developments has to be the latest progress with Google's voice generating AI. Now if you have used any of the Google products or even simply used the Google translate service, you are familiar with Google's AI voice. Available in both a male or female voice, the robotic voice is a staple in our culture just like Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana.

Forget hunkering down with a hangover and a box set, if you're single New Year's Day is all about looking for love - with today expected to see the largest number of sign-ups ever to online dating apps. Perhaps inspired by the doe-eyed engagement photographs of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, millions are expected to start the search for a 2018 love match. According to new research, the first of January has replaced January 2nd as the day day single people are most likely to sign up for an online dating app. With the majority of the nation off work for the bank holiday, it seems the desire for romance is heightened by the fresh start that a new year promises. That, coupled with easier technology - meeting someone with a few swipes on your phone from the comfort of your sofa - has led to an unprecedented surge of interest in dating apps such as Tinder, Match and Happn.

We create over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That includes customer data: purchases, web visits, mobile app interactions, social media posts, "liked" ads, and call center charts. No human could possibly make sense of it all. Read the digital whitepaper, "Data the natural resource: 4 new ways to engage your customers like never before".

Last fall I did some chatting on a dating app with a guy I hoped to meet. He had a job, he had an adorable pooch--and he was friends with people I knew in the flesh. So I gave him my cell number and asked him to call me about 10 pm that night. Here's what: Just after 10 he texted that he was at a restaurant around the corner – and he pulled into my driveway two minutes later. "How did you know where I live?" "That was easy – you gave me your phone number," he said nonchalantly as I told him to leave, which (fortunately) he did.

In September, Apple stunned the world when it flaunted its newfangled FaceID on its revolutionary iPhone X. But this geek tech is just the tip of the iceberg. An AI company has now upped the ante by making another version of you. California-based ObEN has created what one would call a "digital twin." The company's proprietary technology allows you to create and design a digital version of yourself by simulating your voice, face, and personality.

Predicting the future is hardly a precise science, but it's possible to identify macro trends by paying close attention to what's happening in an industry. Here's what a handful of entrepreneurs, founders and executives see coming in 2018. "It's been three years since Alexa first showed up in our living rooms. When Amazon launched the first Echo, it seemed like a curious product to many. But the sales growth of Amazon's Alexa-powered product family has been meteoric in the past year. Not to mention that Google Home joined the party, and soon to be followed by the Apple HomePod. Amazon is now licensing Alexa and new devices--including thermostats, home lighting systems, remote controls, automobiles and more--which now have the super smart assistant built in. As consumers, we're becoming increasingly more comfortable and reliant upon using voice to talk with our phones, cars and smart home accessories. While I'm not about to say that the graphical user interface of the touchscreen is dying, there's little question that in 2018 voice will become a primary interface to the digital world. And with it, professionals and firms will develop specialized expertise for voice interface design and voice app development, as the VUI coexists with the GUI." "Major retailers have long ignored the importance of their supply chain and consumers are no longer willing to accept an inefficient buying process. Fewer locations to service is the only the first step for retailers needing to gain a competitive edge. The second is better control over the supply chain and less outsourcing. Large retailers will recognize this deficiency in 2018 and bring logistics in-house as a key differentiator."

Farewell 2017, a year in which marketing technology really took off and where both consumers and marketers alike started to experience the potential of artificial intelligence in our daily personal and professional lives. Thanks to our new voice-operated companions Alexa and Siri, and advanced analytics tools based on machine learning becoming increasingly accessible, we all caught a glimpse of the exciting future driven by AI. Certainly, interest in AI among marketers this past year was the highest it has ever been. It was difficult not to stumble upon some discussion about AI and marketing in every conference, blog, trade press article or pitch. That's a very healthy interest, and we should encourage it into the new year. However, AI hasn't yet lived up to all its promises (and hype).