Amazon's range of smart speakers and their artificial intelligence assistant Alexa have proved to be a huge sales hit. But the product is still a shadow of what the man in charge - Dave Limp - and indeed their owners, hope it will become. "We have thousands of engineers inside Amazon adding to [its] capability every day and then another tens of thousands of developers adding to the skills," he tells the BBC. "The thing I am sure of is that this time next year she will be significantly more intelligent than she is now, and that sometime in the future we will hit our goal of reinventing the Star Trek computer." It's a lofty goal, especially since any attempt to go beyond commanding a weather update or asking for the lights to be switched on is currently asking for trouble.

Home robots are the promised land of a consumer market that has been on the precipice of burgeoning for a few years. But aside from a roving vacuum cleaner-turned-spy or a Tesla with some self-driving functionality, you probably don't have a robot in your house. One company is hoping to take a circuitous path past the discarded corpses of helper bot prototypes and creepy home assistants. Ori has developed a line of robotic, reconfigurable furniture that moves around a small space, creating new partitions and spitting out hidden features like cabinets, a bed, or a desk on-demand. If you live in San Francisco, New York, or Vancouver, you probably don't have as much space as you want.

New research examining how organisations are evolving from a traditional office environment to a digital workplace, has revealed that gaining competitive advantage and improving business process are among the top goals of their digital transformation strategy. This is according to 40% of 800 organisations in 15 countries on five continents that were interviewed for Dimension Data's survey. The report found that digital transformation is not just about adopting the technologies of the past: 62% of research participants expect to have technology such as virtual advisors in their organisations within the next two years. In addition, 58% expect to start actively investing in technology that powers virtual advisors in the next two years. Today, the digital workplace is no longer just made up of managers and those managed; co-workers collaborating with one another to complete projects; and employees interacting with customers and partners.

When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), both reporters and consumers tend to focus on big, bold, and very sexy stories, like autonomous self-driving cars or machines beating human world champions at games like chess, Go, and even Jeopardy. And I'll admit, those stories are very cool, and they certainly deserve the attention they get. Aside from those stories, though, some of the largest, most practical advancements in AI are happening in the industrial sector, and it might come to the surprise of more than a few that the retail industry -- traditionally risk-averse and more fast follower than early adopter -- is leading the way. Currently, retail sees AI solutions like Amazon's Echo, Google's Home, and Apple's Siri making real differences in the online shopping experience, and the Amazon Go concept store appears destined to be a disruptive force in the brick-and-mortar realm. Seemingly every week, new applications come online, like Original Stitch's Bodygram, which custom-tailors button-down shirts from a single photo.

From Amazon to Apple, many of the biggest technology firms around the world have recently developed smart speakers. And according to the latest rumours, Facebook looks like it could be the next firm to release its own device. The rumours suggest that Facebook plans to unveil a smart speaker with a 15-inch (38-cm) touchscreen as early as next year. According to the latest rumours, Facebook (CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pictured) looks like it could be the next firm to release its own speaker. In May, Amazon released a version of its Echo speaker called the'Show' which features a seven inch touchscreen.

Fitbit might have had a few issues (okay, many issues) developing their long-expected smartwatch, but they have some good news today if you use Windows. You can now use the Fitbit skill with Cortana, Windows' virtual personal assistant. Microsoft introduced the Cortana Skills Kit earlier this year, which encourages developers to integrate their products with Cortana. To connect Cortana to Fitbit, all you have to do is say, "Hey Cortana, open Fitbit." Cortana will then prompt you to connect your Fitbit account.

By Pavel Alpeyev When Siri is asked whether she has a boyfriend, the iPhone's digital assistant is usually quick to deflect the question with a quip about drones always trying to pick her up. For Minori Takechi, founder of Vinclu, that's a missed opportunity. Takechi is the creator of Hikari Azuma, a miniskirt-wearing avatar. She can hold a basic conversation and wake you up in the morning by turning on the lights. Hikari will message you at work and greet you when you return home.

The introduction of Amazon Echo and Google Home is helping the Chatbot crossover into the mainstream, heralding a new era for the technology. However, while they have grand ambitions of offering 360-degree personal assistant support to consumers, the current limits of the technology mean they still fall short of being able to complete more complex tasks. Sure, Alexa and Siri can tell you the weather, play your favourite Spotify playlist, search the internet on your behalf, and manage your diary – but ask them to book you a ticket on the next train home, order an Uber, or tell you your bank balance and they're stumped. First off, most chatbots are designed to be generalists, offering support on a wide range of tasks faster and cheaper than a human executive assistant. The problem is that these'virtual assistants' don't have access to the information they need for the provision of more complex support.

Google's next iPhone killer, the Pixel XL has been revealed in a new series of renders. The images, created by @onleaks and MySmartPrice, show the handset's new look, and most notably, its lack of a headphone socket. Previous leaked have also claimed it may also have a hidden feature - squeezable edges. The images, created by @onleaks and MySmartPrice, show the handset's new look, and most notably, its lack of a headphone socket. 'The phones feature considerably less bezel compared to the Pixel and the Pixel XL, said mysmartprice.com

Facebook on Wednesday reported a surge in profits in the past quarter, fueled by strong growth in money-making ads to its more than two billion users. Net profit in the second quarter leapt 71 percent from a year ago to $3.9 billion while revenue climbed 45 percent to $9.3 billion. In after-hours trade, Facebook shares rose some two percent to $166.83 on the stronger-than-expected results. Recent reports suggest Facebook may be working on its own smart speaker to compete with Google Home and Amazon Echo in the budding market for home digital assistants. Facebook could also be working on a smartphone, according to paperwork recently spotted by cyber sleuths which the tech giant filed earlier this year.