You've heard of Siri, Viv, Cortana and Echo – you've probably even used one of them. Powered by Artificial Intelligence, these increasingly clever digital assistants provide the user with instant access to information, from the weather forecast to amusing trivia. The most well-known of the bunch is probably Siri, developed by Apple and built in to all iPhones, iPads and Macs as standard. However, companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have released their own assistants. Samsung being the most recent tech giant to develop a competing product, revealing its new PA at the beginning of the month.

Apple's rumored Siri speaker could be announced as soon as June at the Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a note by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo obtained by MacRumors. Kuo said there is an "over 50 percent chance" the speaker will be revealed at WWDC, which will be held June 5-9. "We believe there is an over 50 percent chance that Apple will announce its first home AI [artificial intelligence] product at WWDC in June and start selling in the [second half of 2017] in order to compete with the new Amazon Echo models to be launched," Kuo said in the note. The analyst also revealed the Siri speaker will cost more than the Amazon Echo. Apple's rumored speaker will supposedly support AirPlay, which had been rumored before, and will have "excellent" acoustics performance.

The future is dystopian: a world in which we humble humans will be replaced by fleets of slick automatons – mechanical menials destined to not only solder, weld and glue us out of jobs, but account, diagnose, and translate us out, too. Or, so goes a certain line of argument. Certainly, there have been some heavyweight concerns voiced about the rise of artificial intelligence. Of course, there are counterarguments too. Just as the Industrial Revolution sparked fears around the supplanting of man by machine (fears which lead some as far as destroying the new mechanical marvels: hence today's use of the word'Luddite' to denote those opposed to technological progress), all new vistas are likely to provoke both optimism and hesitance.

You might not have to wait too much longer to see Apple's fabled smart speaker... though buying it may be another matter. Well-connected KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple will introduce its Siri-equipped speaker (labeled by Kuo as Apple's "first home AI product") at its Worldwide Developer Conference in early June. And to no one's surprise, it would be pitched as a premium alternative to the Amazon Echo -- a subwoofer and seven tweeters would deliver "excellent" sound. It would also tout a more powerful processor (comparable to the A8 or A9 in previous-generation iPhones) and, naturally, tight integration with other Apple devices. You might be waiting a while.

In the 25 years or so since I've been working on voice recognition projects, the technology has evolved a great deal. Today, all the major tech companies, from Apple to Google and beyond, are combining voice recognition with artificial intelligence software to create new platforms and interfaces for their users (think of Siri, Alexa or Cortana.) This kind of voice-activated innovation will continue to be important. But I believe a different technology will be even more significant: Augmented reality, or AR. Simply put, AR technology integrates virtual images and information with a user's real-world surroundings.

The Galaxy S8 is shipping all over the world, people are raving about it, and it's breaking all sorts of sales records. Samsung's AI assistant Bixby wasn't quite ready to launch when the Galaxy S8 did, so Samsung held back its biggest feature, voice commands, with a vague promise that it will launch "later this spring." But we could be getting to know Bixby sooner than we think. Samsung has launched the voice component of Bixby in its home country of South Korea, a clear signal that the company is hard at work at perfecting its voice recognition engine. The plan has always been for Korean language support to launch first followed by English.

You can pick up Amazon Echo for far below list price, if you're comfortable buying refurbished. Which you can be -- certified refurbished products are tested and certified to look and work like new, and come with warranties. Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more--instantly. All you have to do is ask.

Sudha Jamthe is a mobile product leader, Author of IOT Disruptions and host of The IoT Show. My kitchen opens up to my family room, where right smack in the middle sits Alexa, an Amazon Echo device. It feels strange to call Alexa a device, because she has been chatting with my family and is building out her personality. Tell Alexa, "You are stupid," and she'll reply, "I'll try to do better next time," and "That's not very nice to say," the second time. As Amazon applies machine learning, Alexa will learn and develop her personality to fit in my home differently from yours.

Amazon's voice-controlled assistant should soon sound more natural to Brits. The company has upgraded the UK version of Alexa with "Speechcons," an extensive list of words and phrases that can be delivered in a more lively, expressive manner. These include "whoops a daisy," "bob's your uncle" and "oh my giddy aunt," as well as "crikey," "blimey" and "geronimo!" Speechcons are part of the Alexa development platform, meaning anyone can draw on them for third-party "skills." As long as it's wrapped in an "interjection" tag, Alexa will check the word against its Speechcon bank and, if it's listed, enunciate with a little extra oomph.

Digital disruption is the flip side of digital opportunity. Established companies and startups alike enlist new technologies in the fight to dislodge incumbents, protect entrenched positions, or re-invent entire industries and business activities. To help business and IT executives evaluate emerging technologies and their potential impact on the digital transformation of their organizations, Forrester recently published "Top Technologies for Digital Predators, 2017," a detailed analysis of 15 emerging technologies with a wide range of disruptive potential and time-to-impact. Here's my summary description of the 5 technologies with the highest potential to create competitive advantage, change markets, or alter the business landscape altogether: AI solutions that can interact with their users, learn their behavior and understand their needs, and even make decisions on their behalf. The landscape for this emerging technology is expanding rapidly to include a wide range of chatbots, virtual agents, robotic process automation, and other digital assistants.