Apple's about to hold its Worldwide Developers Conference – the event where it shows off the future of the company, and of all its products. The event is one of the biggest company in the world's biggest events. While there won't be a new iPhone revealed – that gets saved for its own event in September – there will be new iPhone software, and plenty of glimpses at where the handset might be headed. Here's everything we're expecting when Apple takes the stage for its big keynote presentation on 5 June. But with Apple the most reliable expectation is that there'll be a surprise, so while a lot has leaked it's sure not to be everything.

From asking Amazon Alexa for traffic conditions, to receiving helpful tips from Slackbot, to using WeChat to book doctor's appointments, bots are becoming omnipresent in our lives. The bot market is hot! There's a plethora of companies and investments in bots: VentureBeat's 2016 Bots Landscape shows just under 200 companies ranging from personal assistants to AI tools to messaging, $22B in funding, and a very hefty $159B in valuation. In this post, we explain why chatbots are rising in popularity with banks, the opportunities and challenges chatbots present, and where data and data science fit into the puzzle. Increasingly, banking institutions are using chatbots for "conversational commerce" or "Voice-First Banking"--allowing banks to interact with customers (in real-time if desired) via messaging and digital platforms.

AI-powered intelligent assistant Alexa is now able to create reminders, Amazon announced today. Now anyone with an Alexa-enabled device can say "Alexa, remind me to stay woke in 10 minutes" or "Alexa, remind me to tell my dad I love him on June 18." Amazon also announced today that Echo or Echo Dot users can create countdown timers with custom names. All scheduled reminders and timers can be viewed in the Alerts and Alarms section section of Alexa app. The ability to create reminders is a longtime requested feature from Alexa fans, like adding calendar events used to be for Google Assistant on Google Home users until Google finally added that feature in May.

Last October, when Google Home was announced, Google CEO Sundar Pichai christened AI as the next platform. Yesterday, AI became a Google product that could become as transformative and as large and potentially pervasive as Google Search. Google's grand bargain with its users will not change: indispensable free apps in return for users' data. Easier to use conversational interfaces such as Google Home and Google Assistant built with AI could be the next free indispensable Google app purchased with the users' information as the currency. It is a virtuous cycle.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, kicks off on June 5 this year. Speaking broadly, we can expect big updates for devices like the iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac. While WWDC is typically focused on software, some observers are predicting we might see new gadgets from the Cupertino, Calif. Here's a look at some of the biggest WWDC announcements Apple may make. Your costly iPhone or Mac wouldn't be nearly as useful without the software that powers it, which is why Apple introduces major upgrades each year.

Dynatrace has built a new virtual assistant that uses its own technology, as well as Amazon Alexa or Slack as its front end voice assistant, to find out whether IT infrastructure is working as effectively as it should be. Named davis, Dynatrace's technology will flag any problems up to IT departments so they can be fixed more quickly than was previously possible. It has been designed to answer questions about all aspects of the company's digital environment from anyone in the business by either talking to Amazon Alexa or typing a request in Slack. It understands the context of questions, thanks to Alexa's voice recognition technology, Lex, which has been released to developers to integrate into their applications. The company developed davis in response to IT departments' daily struggle to keep on top of everything going on in their businesses, especially when it comes to the complexities of application delivery and stretched resources.

The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is creating new opportunities for small businesses across industries to increase productivity and keep up with popular technology. According to industry projections, small businesses will increasingly adopt AI solutions, beginning with third-party apps and eventually progressing to proprietary tools. While AI may seem daunting, there are easy ways for small business owners to begin harnessing the power of AI-enabled tools and software. By focusing first on more basic solutions like Amazon Alexa, small business owners can improve their organizational strategies and ease accounting burdens, to name a few. By helping to automate tasks like organization and accounting, AI can help small business owners focus on big picture plans and overall operations.

Amazon Echo can play music and all, but Google Home rules as a party DJ, is a better match for movie night, and has superior sound. But Home's real strength is as a control center for playing music and video around the house. You can use it to speak commands to any smart TV or speaker that has Chromecast built in. If your devices aren't that intellectually advanced, just plug in a Chromecast dongle for audio ($35) or video ($35 for 1080p, $70 for 4K) where you need it. Here's how to set up your system for optimal voice-guided entertainment.

You can always tell when Apple's WWDC developer shindig is nigh. A few months before Tim Cook and his executives take the stage to show off what Apple's software teams have been building for the last year, whispers start to trickle out. The leaks start really flowing a few weeks leading up to the event, and in the last few days before WWDC, the pipes burst, the dam gives, the levee breaks. If the rumors are true (and they usually are), this year's WWDC will be hardware-focused. This year's conference, which starts Monday, has Apple at an interesting crossroads. The gadget-buying world is hyped beyond reason for the tenth-anniversary iPhone, but that's likely not coming until this fall.

The $299 device will feature a 4K camera and deploy some of the artificial intelligence technology Google has been developing in recent years.