Last year I attended the Marketo Marketing Nation Summit and had the opportunity to be entertained by keynote speaker James Corden of the CBS Late Late Show and of "carpool karaoke" fame. Central to Corden's talk was the importance of truth and transparency in both comedy and marketing. And aside from the obvious irony in today's era of alternative facts and fake news, he made a great argument for keeping things real. In addition to Corden, the buzz at the summit was all about the latest trends in marketing tech, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). Comments about AI's ability to facilitate listening, personalization and campaign management at scale floated around the halls and meeting rooms, causing almost everyone to wonder about the possibilities.

The effort is one of many signals that artificial intelligence is a huge theme at this year's show–mainly in the form of digital assistants like the Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Apple's Siri. Google wants those ads to create the vibe that its Assistant is the go-to choice for consumer electronics companies looking to build a brain into their device. But the current reality is different than the marketing message. This year, 45.4 million Americans will talk to an AI assistant inside smart speakers, says research firm eMarketer. But only about a quarter of them will be talking to Google's Assistant, while almost 68% will be talking to Amazon's Alexa. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who only occasionally shares specific numbers relating to hardware sales, said his company sold "tens of millions" of Alexa-powered devices over the holidays.

The verdict is still out on Sony's new pet dog'aibo,' but that's not stopping the company from planning a deeper push into robotics. The mechanical mutt, which goes on sale in Japan on Thursday, is just the beginning of the Tokyo-based company's return to robotics, Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai told Bloomberg TV. While aibo is primarily a toy, its artificial-intelligence capabilities and robotic architecture can be used to create machines for various service fields, he said. "The technology we incorporated into aibo -- A.I., robotics, and that combination -- in different form-factors can manifest itself in other robots that can be a part of transportation, education, health care," Hirai told Bloomberg's Emily Chang. "So it has a lot of different applications beyond just being an entertainment robot."

When you mention artificial intelligence (AI), plenty of images come to mind, thanks in large part to Hollywood depictions of the rise of the machines. While robots have yet to take over the world, many less threatening examples of AI have dominated our culture, from our everyday interactions with Siri or Alexa, to Google's self-driving car, or to Ken Jennings losing to Watson on Jeopardy! In reality, AI has already worked its way into our lives in ways that are far less sensational or even noticeable. Today's definition of AI is fluid, and the countless companies offering AI solutions in the market have as many different definitions for the concept as there are products. In short, the term "AI" is widely used to describe any computing function that mimics human intelligence or thinking.

While the idea of a robot assistant seems appealing to a wide swath of consumers, the reality may not live up to the anticipation. One of the most well-known artificial intelligence agents, Apple's Siri, is only reportedly used by about 15% of iPhone users. That leaves 85% of iPhone users who don't seem to find value in the robot pal who lives in their pocket. As Siri is a primary selling feature for a flagship product from one of the most renowned technology companies in the world, this begs the question – can anyone really execute an interactive voice recognition-based bot in a useful and meaningful way? (Intelligent Voice) The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas has adopted the use of an artificial intelligence concierge called "Rose" to assist their guests and provide a unique interactive experience. Since Rose's introduction, the hotel has seen a 39% increase in on-site spending and 90% of guests who interacted with Rose reported that they would recommend her.

If you've been using voice search technology from Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, or Google Home more than you did in previous years then you're a part of a large and growing trend that's impacting the way we search for information and make purchases. In fact, Dominos knows this very well, and allows customers to order a pizza just by speaking into a smart device. Back in 2013 the Hummingbird update changed the way Google delivers better search results through an improvement in semantic search by tracking conversational phrases. This led to the search engine understanding the intent and contextual meaning of terms used in a query. Enter in the two-way conversation of speaking your search phrases -- users no longer rely on links, but rather verbal responses.

Technology is incorporated into every single aspect of our life, right from waking up from the smartphone alarm to using maps while driving. It was created to make our life easier. When used correctly, the negative impact of technology can balance the positive. Virtual assistant technology is another buzzword in the startup world that is helping entrepreneurs by performing tasks on their behalf. The voice-enabled virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Google Now can do tedious jobs with a touch command or voice command.

This is part 4 of a five-part series, providing an update on the 5 Disruptions to Marketing as we head into 2018. If you have not yet read Part 1: Digital Transformation (2018 Update), Part 2: Microservices & APIs (2018 Update), or Part 3: Vertical Competition (2018 Update), you might want to start there. For the first half of the Internet revolution, "digital" meant the web. Email was there from the beginning too, but it's never gotten much respect as a transformational medium. But then the Hyrda-like heads of digital touchpoints began to multiply. Social media was something different than the web.

Google Assistant's fingerprints are all over the CES 2018 show floor, but it's especially easy to see on a few new Android Things-powered devices. This LG ThinQ Google Assistant Touch Screen Speaker is one of them, and like Lenovo's Smart Display, it's built on a Qualcomm Home Hub Platform. On the show floor, it smoothly scrolled through demo applications popping up info in ways we're used to seeing on our phones or through Android Auto. So far all the demonstrations only include Google apps like Duo, Maps, Music, Photos and YouTube -- currently MIA on Amazon's Echo Show -- so we'll be watching carefully to see how the device's capabilities expand as developers dig into Android Things, which leans on existing tools to create new apps for these devices. According to Qualcomm, this more powerful version of its platform (SDA624) can drive a Full HD display, capture 4K video and support Tensor Flow for on-device machine learning.

Do we really need an Alexa-powered toilet? Kitchen and bath products-maker Kohler thinks so, as well as a faucet and bathroom mirror and the list of Alexa-activated devices is even longer and weirder than that. Amazon was expected to get its voice-activated digital assistant into all manner of Internet-connected gadgets at CES 2018, the big annual technology trade show that wrapped up in Las Vegas last week. The list of new devices powered by Alexa rose to 4,000, from over 1,000 brands. Not to be outdone, Google made an unusual splash, showing off deals that put its Alexa rival, Google Assistant, in touchscreen displays and voice-activated commands in cars.