Artificial intelligence or AI is encroaching on the sales process at an exciting rate, or alarming, depending on your side of the coin. Using machine learning, predictive analyses, and big data analytics, AI can now automate routine tasks, unearth insights off sales data, and assist sales reps in enhancing overall service. We see it integrated in CRM, salesforce automation, help desk solutions, and other B2B apps. Even as vendors are pushing the envelope for smarter solutions. The benefits of AI to sales efficiency are high, and the stakes, too.

"Thank you, Charlotte," the personal assistant AI known as Adam responded. "I'll be sure to pass that along to the developers. "Would you be interested in some hot chocolate? There's a new café two blocks away that's said to have some of the best in the city." The young executive laughed lightly. "Adam, it's as if you could read my mind!" Welcome to the age of artificial emotional intelligence, an era in which our technologies are increasingly able to read, interpret, predict, and even influence our emotions. From the early stage, we find ourselves at today, these programs, robots and other devices will grow to become our friends, confidants, and possibly much more–like the film Her brought to life. In the process, they will transform nearly every aspect of our relationship with technology, beginning with the world of commerce, the driver for all of this change. Why would we do this? Because emotions are at the heart of the human experience. Before there was technology, before there ...

Computer-based artificial intelligence (AI) has been around since the 1940s, but the current innovation boom around everything from virtual personal assistants and visual search engines to real-time translation and driverless cars has led to new milestones in the field. And ever since IBM's Deep Blue beat Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997, machine versus human milestones inevitably bring up the question of whether or not AI can do things better than humans (it's the the inevitable fear around Ray Kurzweil's singularity).

The good: Sharp screen, Excellent front-facing camera, Great audio The bad: Too large to hold comfortably, Battery life could be better, Second screen doesn't improve the experience, Expensive Who should buy: Android fans who want an exceptionally large phone with a nice screen -- but those who prioritize portability and battery life should look elsewhere. A little more than four years ago in 2013, HTC made my favorite Android smartphone: the One. Its sleek metal design set it apart from competing Android phones at the time, many of which felt like they were made of chintzy plastic. The One also had an excellent screen and the best speakers of its class. But while the One's successors brought mild improvements, they have largely felt like the same phone repackaged with upgraded internals and slightly altered looks. That's why I was excited to get my hands on the $749 U Ultra, which HTC began shipping in March.

Apple has been put on notice by Samsung's big Bixby virtual assistant in the Galaxy S8. But the iPhone maker apparently has some big changes of its own up its sleeve. Apple has filed for a patent on a deep learning technology that would turn Siri into an exceedingly powerful tool that could digitally "see" and deliver better assistance to users. The patent, which was earlier discovered by Patently Apple, describes how a device could use sensor to constantly analyze what's going on around the hardware. From there, it responds with something it believes, you'll want it to do.

Stephen Hawking famously said, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Before that happens, however, the emergence of AI-driven sales technology will almost certainly spell the end of selling as we know it now -- and could spell the end of the line for businesses that don't appreciate the power in the next wave of technology. Imagine a digital sales assistant that responds to verbal commands. Those commands could be simple -- "call the next most qualified lead in my queue," for example. Or they could be complex -- "provide an analysis of which up-sell offers have worked best for prospects like the one I'm working on." Such assistants -- when connected to large data sets of sales and marketing automation data -- will allow salespeople to work at the speed of their thoughts, rather than at the speed their systems allow them to work.

"AI is the new UI" may be a cliché now. But back in 2011 when Apple first released Siri, the capability to control a mobile device by talking to it through an intelligent assistant was revolutionary. Granted, Siri wasn't as smart as HAL in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" or Eddy, the shipboard computer in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," but it made enough of an impact on consumer technology to spawn a stream of similar intelligent assistants. And these will likely be joined soon by many others, including Samsung's Bixby, which is based on technology Samsung acquired when it bought Viv, a company founded by the people behind Siri. And just as the iPhone took off when Apple opened it up to third-party app makers, the key to the success of these intelligent assistants may well be the ability for third-party developers to access them and employ them as a user interface to their applications.

Eighty percent of marketing leaders say that AI will "revolutionize" marketing by 2020, but many CMOs remain paralyzed on the sidelines, questioning how this kind of bleeding-edge tech should be used and if it will provide a marked return on investment. Ironically enough, at the same time we talk about the uncertainty that an artificial intelligence-powered future could bring, we are increasingly adopting these experiences into our day-to-day lives. From Siri and self-driving cars to connected devices like Amazon Echo and customer service chatbots, experiences powered by artificial intelligence will soon be the norm. Even though marketers generally accept AI's growing influence, they hesitate to adopt it (though they may not realize that if their brand invests in programmatic media buying, for example, they're already deeply immersed in the world of AI). But although marketers are liberally leaning on AI to drive media buying and automate customer service, they struggle when it comes to its role within the creative puzzle.

Artificial intelligence will have a hand in how people meet in the future, according to Tinder's chairman and co-founder. Sean Rad discussed the progression of dating, the future of the matchmaking app and how AI might influence that during the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday. "AI is going to empower new user experiences. I think in the future, you're going to be working less for the answer that you're looking for. As devices get smarter, you're just going to get the results," said Rad. "It's not hard to imagine a world where you're talking to your device…there's an enmeshment between what your tech can do and what you're experiencing in real time."

While many businesses have been speedy adopters of emerging and disruptive technologies, banking and the financial services industry has been seen to lag behind. This could be chalked up to a myriad of factors including complex legacy systems or even the fact that a significant portion of high value clients, particularly for wealth management firms and IFAs, are more likely to belong to senior demographics and may have a higher propensity for non-digital communication such as calls or face-to-face meetings. Because of this, a significant proportion of FS businesses may not have felt the need to invest in digital. This is also potentially exacerbated by the fact that their competitors and cohorts are also lagging in terms of digital. Research by Econsultancy and Adobe shows that 9% of FS businesses claim to be digital-first, compared to 11% across all sectors.