Before we understand how artificial intelligence can be beneficial for businesses, let's consider the very definition of AI, the various ways it has manifested in recent times, and how it is creating a major impact in customer service. Artificial intelligence in the mobile app world is the hottest topic this year. To put it in simple words, artificial intelligence (AI) is a part of computer science wherein computers are developed to perform intelligent tasks or solve problems that are otherwise done by humans. The term "artificial intelligence" is said to have been coined by Stanford researcher John McCarthy in 1956. We see that AI is currently being developed by many top companies like Watson by IBM, Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Home, Microsoft's Cortana, and so on.

Artificial intelligence, still in its infancy, has the potential to change business forever. To take care of all the mundane tasks employees currently handle, freeing up their time to be more creative and perform the work that machines cannot do. Today, the emerging technology is used mostly by large enterprises through machine learning and predictive analytics. AI is going to be one of the hot topics at DMEXCO, Sept. 13 to 14 in Cologne, Germany. Ahead of the digital marketing conference, we thought it a good time to understand the current state of AI and what lies ahead.

SAN FRANCISCO – Google is biting off a big piece of device manufacturer HTC for $1.1 billion to expand its efforts to build phones, speakers and other gadgets equipped with its arsenal of digital services. The deal, announced Thursday, underscores how serious Google is becoming about designing its own family of devices to compete against Apple and Amazon in a high-stakes battle to become the technological hub of people's lives. Google will take on HTC employees including teams who have worked on its signature Pixel smartphone. The deal also comes with a nonexclusive licensing agreement for HTC intellectual property, the companies said in a statement. The deal covers half of HTC's research staff, or around 2,000 people, and is expected to be completed in early 2018 pending regulatory approval, HTC said.

Google will announce a number of new products on October 4, reportedly including two new phones, a smaller version of the Google Home, and a high-end laptop. And on Wednesday, the company announced an agreement with struggling manufacturer HTC that will import a team of engineers over to Google, to help close the gap between Mountain View's hardware ambitions and its present reality. The tie-up's not quite the acquisition that had been rumored, but rather a "cooperation agreement." Google is hiring a team of HTC employees--about 2,000 people in all, members of HTC's "Powered by HTC" division--most of whom have already been working on Google's Pixel phones. Those employees will stay in Taipei, Taiwan, where HTC is headquartered, but they'll become full-on Googlers. Both sides hope to close the deal by early 2018.

In many ways, Artificial Intelligence and marketing seem to go hand in hand. The multi layered technology is an incredibly useful tool for helping brands to engage with customers, as by analysing data, brands can glean a far deeper understanding of what consumers want. According to research from Demandbase, 80 per cent of marketers believe that AI will revolutionise their industry by 2020. However, only 10 per cent are actually using it today. Although marketers have recognised the importance of embracing AI in campaigns and content, few have put this into practise. So, how will AI disrupt marketing?

We haven't gotten to the point of voice-activated vacuum cleaners yet, but closing your garage door with an "Ok Google" has arrived. Garage-door company Chamberlain has announced that its MyQ app will now work with Google Assistant in addition to your Nest camera. More than issuing a closing command, you can ask if the door is open or if it's closed, too. MyQ works with IFTTT now as well. The system can automatically close the garage door when you leave a geofenced area, turn down the thermostat once you leave.

It's been a week since the Apple Watch Series 3 was revealed, and reviews of the wearable device have poured in -- pointing out the good and bad. The Apple Watch Series 3's major boost from previous models is its support for cellular LTE. However, the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern said there were issues with connectivity during the week in which she tested out the new models. Stern also said there were problems with Series 3's battery life. "You're lucky if the battery allows you to roam on cellular for longer than half a day--especially if you're making calls. And only a limited number of third-party apps work without the phone close by. Most worryingly, my colleague Geoffrey Fowler and I experienced cellular connectivity issues on three separate pre-production models, in two different states, on two different 4G LTE carriers. On the AT&T -connected models, the cellular connection dropped, calls were often choppy and Siri sometimes failed to connect. On the one that ran on T-Mobile, I experienced several dropped connections."

Apple rolled out a new version of its Apple Music app for Android. This update comes with support for the "OK Google" voice command and other improvements that make the Android app up to par with the native iOS version. On Tuesday, Apple launched a new iteration of Apple Music for Android. This new 2.2.0 update requires Android 4.3 and newer Android versions. It is also designed to bring some features of the iOS app and other enhancements to its Android counterpart.

With two weeks to go until Google's big end-of-year event on October 4, we already know everything that's going to be announced. After months of rumors and speculation, especially about the Pixel 2 flagship phone, Droid-Life dropped a bomb yesterday and published images and prices for everything Google is about to release. You might remember that the same thing happened right before the iPhone X event last week, reducing the presentation to a checklist rather than a show. Granted, Apple relies more on the wow factor than Google does, but yesterday's massive leak must have rankled CEO Sundar Pichai just a little. We already had a pretty good idea about what was coming, but now there's little reason to get excited.

Ten years ago artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare was only realized in movies and sci-fi specials. Today the AI movement has caught up to reality and day-to-day healthcare in a big way. Many patients are unaware that when they are discharged for the hospital in leading institutions, an AI based predicative algorithm calculates the risk of their re-admission and provides guidance for discharge nurses as to the best means to minimize anticipated complications and an avoidable readmission. AI innovation is allowing clinicians and service workers to broadly apply their knowledge, freeing up more face time to spend delivering direct care, and scales critical decision making that was once only applicable to a small population. For example, AI has the potential to efficiently apply the expertize of 1000 top radiologists to one interpretation of a chest x-ray or MRI scan.