After a decade of brands being tried and tested by social media, another new medium is set to challenge brand integrity: AI-powered voice technology. This new voice-controlled world will not only test brand differentiation, but also how enduring a brand's relationship is with its consumers. Tone of voice has long been an essential component of a brand development, helping marketers embody and express the personality of their brand, largely via the written word. Before the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social media this was a straightforward exercise, developing a brand's tone of voice safe in the knowledge that all text written for advertisements, marketing collateral, website content, or for press use, would be carefully reviewed, checked and approved against those guidelines. Smart brands have since extended their brand identity guidelines to help them manage how they communicate via social media, where brand communications can be free-flowing conversations that are not planned in advance, regulated by the letter and can be disrupted by consumers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, the aim being that it helps machines work and react the way humans do. Like most technological advances, AI is growing because it simplifies routine tasks, making it easier for human beings to focus on the intellectual aspects of a given process. For example, computer devices were introduced for problem-solving, but have always needed an operator to look after the coding and maintenance. It's a huge challenge, but this absence of intelligence is is slowly being filled by artificial intelligence. In this post, we will look at ways in which AI is successfully adding brilliance to machines and web applications.

In a meeting room this week at the Wynn–away from Google's temporarily rain-soaked outdoor booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center–the company demoed a tabletop touchscreen device that could display Google Photos albums, bring up directions from Google Maps (and send them to your phone), look up recipes, play music with album art, and of course load videos from YouTube. Google Assistant voice commands controlled most of the action, with the 8-inch touchscreen providing extra control and context. Google's software is a work in progress–devices using it won't ship until later this year–but it gave me the impression that the company is ready to take on touchscreen devices powered by Amazon's Alexa assistant, such as the Echo Show and Echo Spot. It also revealed an unsolved problem for both companies: How complex should navigation be on a device that's more like an appliance than a computer? As Amazon and Google are learning, the race toward simplification comes at a cost.

Does a robot manage your money? For many of us, the answer is yes. Online and algorithmic investment and financial advice is easy to come by these days, usually under the moniker of "robo-advisor." Startups such as Wealthfront, Personal Capital, and Betterment launched robo-advisors as industry disruptors, and incumbents, such as Schwab's (Intelligent Advisor), Vanguard (Personal Advisor Services), Morgan Stanley and BlackRock have joined the fray with their own hybrid machine/advisor solutions. It's clear that robo-advisors and AI play an important and growing role in the financial services industry, but a question remains. Will robo-advisors disrupt corporate capital allocation the same way they have personal capital allocation?

This week about 180,000 visitors flocked to the world's biggest technology exhibition, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. And while all the usual gadgets made an appearance, from smart fridges to self-driving cars, there was one dominant theme: speech. With nearly half of people in the US using voice-activated digital assistants in their smartphones or tablets, and the ownership of standalone digital assistants, like Google Home and Amazon Echo, expected to double in 2018, every tech company now wants a slice of the pie. Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant, is now available in everything from microwaves to cars, and from TVs to mirrors. Google had more than 350 voice-controlled devices at the show, including speakers, cars, and a giant toy town complete with a railway.

Virtual aides battled to rule "smart homes" on the eve of the official opening of the Consumer Electronics show gadget gala here. Samsung, LG Electronics, Panasonic and others touted a future in which homes, cars and pockets brim with technology that collaborates to make lives easier. Google and Amazon are key players in the trend, with their rival Assistant and Alexa voice-commanded virtual aides being woven deeper into consumer electronics and vehicles. Samsung meanwhile is playing catch-up with its Bixby assistant. "The biggest theme is the fight for the connected home between Google and Amazon," said Patrick Moorhead, of Moor Insights & Strategy, during a CES press briefing.

It seems strange in a world where Facebook users believe the social network listens to their private spoken conversations -- and produces related adverts -- that smart, learning and always-listening devices with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are suddenly so popular. At CES 2017, Alexa ruled the nascent smart speaker roost, as the personal assistant appeared on devices beyond those of Amazon's own Echo range. Google countered with the Google Assistant, and at CES 2018 we have seen both spread far and wide. Finding Alexa or Google Assistant (or even both) inside a television or speaker is no longer a surprise. But as the smart home of the future finally becomes an attainable reality, artificial intelligence is appearing everywhere. At CES it was in fridges and ovens, washing machines, dryers and even light switches.

One of the most intriguing ecommerce trends to watch in the coming year is "voice shopping." Amazon and Google are accelerating the adoption of home assistants/speakers that let users interact with them and order items they need to purchase by simply uttering a command. Among the major voice technologies that are powering all kinds of devices (including automobiles) are Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana. Facebook is also looking to get in on the action with its own hardware device code-named Portal, according to a report from Cheddar. If you're a micro seller that relies on marketplaces to generate sales, you're counting on those platforms to provide state-of-the-art features so you aren't left behind.

Facebook recently announced it was shutting down M, it's virtual personal assistant, causing some people to wonder if the decision meant chatbots were not as useful as they first seemed. The technology behind M was not perfect, but it's important to remember that it could serve as a learning tool to aid decisions made by chatbot developers in the future. Below, let's explore how M worked and the lessons learned from its less-than-ideal characteristics. M worked with the help of machine learning. It detected meaningful fragments of conversations people had with each other in Messenger, then made suggestions of the next actions to take.

Now available in new colors and with Dell Mobile Connect, which lets you wirelessly tether a smartphone, the Dell XPS 13 is the smallest and most powerful 13-inch laptop in the world. LAS VEGAS--What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas -- at least hopefully not for a bunch of the products showcased here last week. Some of the technology that debuts at CES, the annual consumer electronics show, turns out to be "vaporware," that is, it will never make a commercial debut for one reason or another. But the following ten products should have a chance vying for space in your home or driveway. Beginning this summer, Lenovo's VR headset doesn't require a connection to a device, like a smartphone, laptop, or game console.