The biggest hardware and software arrival since the iPad in 2010 has been Amazon's Echo voice-controlled intelligent speaker, powered by its Alexa software assistant. But just because you're not seeing amazing new consumer tech products on Amazon, in the app stores, or at the Apple Store or Best Buy, that doesn't mean the tech revolution is stuck or stopped. They are: Artificial intelligence / machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics and drones, smart homes, self-driving cars, and digital health / wearables. Google has changed its entire corporate mission to be "AI first" and, with Google Home and Google Assistant, to perform tasks via voice commands and eventually hold real, unstructured conversations.

Addressing thousands of developers at the annual Google I/O conference on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company's new strategy to transition from mobile first to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The goal is to equip the company's line of digital assistant products and services to anticipate the needs of users, and comprehend sights and sounds in ways never before possible on a massive scale. Google's deep learning and computer vision capabilities have advanced dramatically, according to Pichai, and now impact everything from cloud computing to Gmail, search and mobile devices. "We spoke last year about this important shift in computing from mobile first to AI first," Pichai recalled. "Similarly, in the AI-first world, we're rethinking all our products and applying AI and machine learning to solve human problems."

This is my last weekly column for The Verge and Recode -- the last weekly column I plan to write anywhere. I've been doing these almost every week since 1991, starting at The Wall Street Journal, and during that time, I've been fortunate enough to get to know the makers of the tech revolution, and to ruminate -- and sometimes to fulminate -- about their creations. Now, as I prepare to retire at the end of that very long and world-changing stretch, it seems appropriate to ponder the sweep of consumer technology in that period, and what we can expect next. Let me start by revising the oft-quoted first line of my first Personal Technology column in the Journal on October 17th, 1991: "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault." It was true then, and for many, many years thereafter. Not only were the interfaces confusing, but most tech products demanded frequent tweaking and fixing of a type that required more technical skill than most people had, or cared to acquire.

On Wednesday, at the 2017 Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, CA, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company is rethinking all of its products with a renewed focus on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). One recent example of the company's use of machine learning is in Google Home, the company's smart speaker powered by Google Assistant, which uses deep learning to allow multiple users to share a single Google Home unit. Pichai also announced that the machine learning-driven Smart Reply feature is coming to Gmail on iOS and Android as well. One of the big announcements at I/O was Google Lens, a set of vision-based computing capabilities that seeks to understand what a user is looking at with their smartphone's camera, and help them take action based on that information. For example, a user can take a picture of a flower, and Lens will tell the user the kind of flower it is, Pichai said.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the face of business. No longer a futuristic concept, its impact is real. From tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon to user-centric behemoths like Uber and Starbucks, everyone seems to be using AI technology to transform the customer experience (CX). But, it's not just corporate giants that are deploying AI. Smaller organizations are following suit.

Do you wish your Google Home or Amazon Echo could help clean your house? If you answered yes, consider getting the Neato Botvac D3 Connected (MSRP $399). This robot vacuum is one of the most affordable smart automated floor cleaners. And our tests proved that it cleans well, too. While it lacks the superior navigation of its higher-end cousins, the laser-guided D3 still excels at dirt pickup, cleaning as well as robot vacuums that cost twice the price. A quick survey of various retailers show that the D3 sells for around $350, making it a little cheaper than its direct smart competitors, chief among them the iRobot 690, which retails for around $375.

These German firms are pursuing exciting new developments in artificial intelligence that will change how we live. Even Silicon Valley is taking note. Silicon Valley is widely seen as the epicenter of pioneering development in artificial intelligence. These German firms, while not as generously funded, are also making great strides. Google and IBM are investing huge sums in autonomous cars and smart virtual assistants.

For years, Google was happy to be a software company. It built the apps and services by other companies on their devices, and it the model worked well for Google. Its search engine is overwhelmingly the most popular way to find information online. Its mobile operating system, Android, is on more than two billion devices worldwide. The Californian technology giant is now increasingly developing its own hardware products, from high-end smartphones to AI-powered smart speakers designed to control your home.

Next time you hear a voice generated by Baidu's Deep Voice 2, you might not be able to tell whether it's human. Baidu, the Beijing-based juggernaut that commands 80 percent of the Chinese internet search market, is investing heavily in artificial intelligence. In 2013, it opened the Institute of Deep Learning, an R&D center focused on machine learning. And in May, it took the wraps off the newest version of Deep Voice, its AI-powered text-to-speech engine. Deep Voice 2, which follows on the heels of Deep Voice's public debut earlier this year, can produce real-time speech that's nearly indistinguishable from a human voice.

Welcome to Mossberg, a weekly commentary and reviews column on The Verge and Recode by veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg, executive editor at The Verge and editor at large of Recode. This is my last weekly column for The Verge and Recode -- the last weekly column I plan to write anywhere. I've been doing these almost every week since 1991, starting at The Wall Street Journal, and during that time, I've been fortunate enough to get to know the makers of the tech revolution, and to ruminate -- and sometimes to fulminate -- about their creations. Now, as I prepare to retire at the end of that very long and world-changing stretch, it seems appropriate to ponder the sweep of consumer technology in that period, and what we can expect next. Let me start by revising the oft-quoted first line of my first Personal Technology column in the Journal on October 17, 1991: "Personal computers are just too hard to use, and it's not your fault." It was true then, and for many, many years thereafter.