The rate of acceleration in the tech sector continues to astound consumers--and provide them with a steady stream of new gadgets to chase after. For marketers and professionals, these forward bursts in technology represent even more opportunities, for productivity, cost-efficiency, and greater brand perceptions. But regardless of which side you're on, what you hope to get out of technology, or why you're interested in it, 2017 was a spectacular year in tech. Let's take a moment to visit--or revisit--some of the most important tech trends that shaped 2017: Machine learning has made massive progress in 2017, in multiple different directions. For starters, consider that last year, Google's AlphaGo program was able to beat one of the best human Go players in the world--a momentous occasion, by all standards.

If you haven't started using artificial intelligence in your business, you're falling behind on the curve. Many business owners today are leveraging AI, whether they are aware of it or not. This is done through everyday business software suites that integrate machine learning and automation to carry out such functions as email communications, voice recognition and response and predictive analysis. The extent to which businesses employ AI solutions needs to be increased if they are to remain competitive within the current economic landscape. One survey involving 230 technology and business executives established that less than 30 percent have leveraged automate tools to carry out repetitive tasks.

Chatbots are the personal assistants of the future. Ask them a question, they'll tell you the answer. Need something ordering, they'll do it automatically. Want to take down a multinational corporation, they'll sue them for you. . . With products such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant now being welcomed into our homes, we're getting used to the convenience of robot helpers.

Despite being an important part of everyday dealings for most businesses and big-ticket purchases, negotiations and drafting of contracts can be tricky. Moreover, oversights can lead to unnecessary costs or loss of revenue in the long run, and can end up being a drain on company resources. Enter SpotDraft, an artificial intelligence-powered platform that uses advanced machine learning algorithms to automate drafting and negotiating of legal contracts. The Gurgaon-based startup, run by Draft Spotting Technologies Ltd, provides solutions to complex legal dealings, including drafting, managing and storing paperwork online, analysing contracts and automating invoices, besides sending reminders and offering expert advice on legal compliances. Launched by Harvard Law graduate Shashank Bijapur and former Google Classrooms tech lead Madhav Bhagat, SpotDraft not only makes life easy for users, but is also Goods and Services Tax-compliant.

The NORAD Tracks Santa website, NoradSanta.org, also features a mobile version. This year, you can ask Alexa, Amazon's artificial intelligence software, for fun facts about Santa as well as where he is and when he'll be over your house.

An advertisement in a Colorado Springs newspaper that year invited kids to call Santa, but it mistakenly listed the number for the hotline at the U.S. Continental Air Defense Command. CONAD, as it was called, had the job of monitoring a vast radar network from a combat operations center in Colorado Springs, searching the skies for any hint of a nuclear attack by the onetime Soviet Union.

The Internet of Things (IoT) may have jumped the digital shark this year. Of course, some would say this happened a long time ago. The New York Times was calling it the "Internet of Way Too Many Things" back in 2015, long before the Amazon Echo, Google Home and other voice-activated speakers found their way into tens of millions of American homes, and long before smart versions of ordinary devices replaced consumers' thermostats, refrigerators and cars. Long before two-thirds of consumers told PYMNTS that they wanted their connected device, whatever it may be, to make seamless payments on their behalf, as shown in this year's "How We Will Pay" study. The study also illuminated which devices people use most and how they like to use them.

Depending on who you ask, artificial intelligence is either going to save humanity or kill us all. At the same time, AI seems to be in everything from home assistants to washing machines. But what is AI, and why is everyone going on about it? Here's how to explain artificial intelligence to your family over Christmas when they ask whether they've unwittingly inviting the AI apocalypse into their living room. Roughly speaking, artificial intelligence research is all about creating computers that can perform tasks that usually require human intelligence.

By nature, human language is complex. To understand human speech, a technology must also understand the grammatical rules, meaning and context, but also colloquialisms, slang and acronyms used in a language. Natural language processing algorithms support computers by simulating the human ability to understand language. Many NLP algorithms are based on statistics and may be combined with deep learning. This approach is superficial in its analysis of language, however, because it isn't able to understand the meaning of words.

OkCupid is clearly eager to cast off many dating site traditions. The service has announced that it will require "real" first names in dating profiles (in a tweet it said "You do not need to use your government name or even your full first name"), starting now with an initial test group and rolling out to everyone over time. As the company explains, it doesn't want the real you to be "hidden beneath another layer of mystique" -- it figures that your profile should offer insight into your personality, not your handle. To some extent, OkCupid is just joining the modern era. Numerous other dating apps require your first name, so you're not left wondering how to address someone when you meet them in person. And of course, creeps may be more willing to message you if they can hide behind an alias.