Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become the newest trend in business intelligence. Companies are rushing to secure resources to incorporate these new technologies into their business model. For the first time in decades, businesses have the opportunity to open up a new channel for business intelligence delivery to support informed business decision making with fast turnaround. In response to this trend in business intelligence, the labor market has started to demand more Data Scientists and Data Architects while demand for other careers decrease. What are these new technologies and how can they revolutionize the way companies do business?

A recent acceleration of innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made it a hot topic in boardrooms, government, and the media. But it is still early, and everyone seems to have a different view of what AI is. I have investigated the space over the last few years as a technologist and active investor. What is remarkable now is that things that haven't worked for decades in the space are starting to work; and we are going beyond just tools and embedded functions. We are starting to redefine how software and systems are built, what can be programmed, and how users interact.

With more than 40% market share in mobile games, billion monthly active users and 2.6 billion unique devices, Unity plays a profoundly important role in the booming gaming and VR markets. Introducing machine learning and AI into game development will curb one of the greatest expenses in time and money that go into content creation, but will also change the role of programmers. With immense access to data and computing power, developers will use historical data to model extensive virtual realities of games, taking programming out of the equation. I spoke with Dr. Danny Lange, VP of AI and machine learning at Unity about this, the present and future of game development, machine learning, and how developers and startups can get most out of it. Dr. Danny Lange is VP of AI and machine learning at Unity Technologies.

Think about the time it takes to see a doctor: Find a doctor, schedule an appointment, drive to the office, inevitably linger in the waiting room and then, finally, see the doctor. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered wellness tools are reducing the steps required to receive a diagnosis. A wellness tool that uses image recognition and deep learning could enable you to self-diagnose a skin complaint. Leading technology and service providers (TSPs) are planning strategies based on an AI-enabled future. Apple, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Samsung are some of the companies that have acquired AI startups and are developing new platforms for AI progress.

Mark Gurman, who seems to have quite a few reliable contacts around the Valley, reports in Bloomberg that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is working on a hardware acceleration chip for artificial intelligence (AI) processing. The chip is known internally as the Apple Neural Engine. The chip could be incorporated into Apple mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad either as a discrete chip or integrated with Apple's custom systems on chip (SOCs). Although Gurman only cites anonymous sources familiar with the matter, I consider the report very credible. Apple has for some time been seeking ways to build more AI functionality into the individual mobile device.

Digital business platform provider Magnolia formed a partnership with IBM in 2015 to integrate with its IBM Marketing Cloud. With the integration, Magnolia users could incorporate the email marketing, lead management and mobile engagement solutions the platform provided into their daily workflows. When Armonk, NY-based IBM folded its Marketing Cloud under the broader umbrella of Watson Marketing in March, the capabilities expanded, which meant good news for Magnolia users. By installing the Magnolia Silverpop Module, Magnolia customers with a Watson Marketing account can plug their Magnolia instances into IBM Watson, bringing further capabilities for personalized content delivery based on scoring models derived from visitor behavior. IBM Watson can, "analyze and interpret all of your data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video [with the aim of] providing personalized recommendations by understanding a user's personality, tone and emotion."

You don't have to be a Go champion to have artificial intelligence change your game. You get in your car and your Apple iPhone tells you what traffic looks like where you're going--before you ask. We're all on the road with Tesla's self-driving cars, which are redefining what driving means. The artificial-intelligence, calendar-assistant "Amy" emails three of your friends to figure out a meeting time that works for everyone--and nails it. Thankfully, chatting with Amazon's Alexa is a lot more entertaining than, say, chatting would be with Hal, the fictional artificial intelligence from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Google has launched a new venture capital program focused on artificial intelligence, Axios is reporting. Google declined to comment on the report, which states that the initiative will be led by longtime Google VP of engineering Anna Patterson and involve a rotating cast of engineers instead of the venture investors who work for Alphabet Inc.'s corporate venture unit, GV. It isn't completely surprising that Google might create an investing practice around AI, particularly given Google CEO Sundar Pichai's recent pronouncement that Google is becoming "AI first" rather than "mobile first." Indeed, AI was the running thread throughout the recent Google I/O developers conference, where the company introduced new tensor processing unit (TPU) chips that promise to more quickly train and run AI models for researchers and businesses; it also announced (among many other things) that its Google Assistant, the company's virtual personal assistant that's available on devices like the Google Home and Pixel phone, will soon grow more conversational. According to Axios, Patterson and company will reportedly be co-investing with GV when it makes sense to do so.

Artificial intelligence has begun seeping its way into every tech product and service. Now, companies are changing the underlying hardware to accommodate this shift. Apple is the latest company creating a dedicated AI processing chip to speed up the AI algorithms and save battery life on its devices, according to Bloomberg. The Bloomberg report said the chip is internally known as the Apple Neural Engine and will be used to assist devices for facial and speech recognition tasks. The latest iPhone 7 runs some of its AI tasks (mostly related to photographer) using the image signal processor and the graphics processing unit integrated on its A10 Fusion chip.

Apple Inc. got an early start in artificial intelligence software with the 2011 introduction of Siri, a tool that lets users operate their smartphones with voice commands. Now the electronics giant is bringing artificial intelligence to chips. Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn't been made public. Engineers at Apple are racing to catch their peers at Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. in the booming field of artificial intelligence. While Siri gave Apple an early advantage in voice-recognition, competitors have since been more aggressive in deploying AI across their product lines, including Amazon's Echo and Google's Home digital assistants.