Whether your interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) is limited to science-fiction or you spend more time in your day talking to Siri and Alexa than actual humans, you can't hide from the fact AI is changing the world. This week, the UK's new digital strategy was launched, which dedicated £17.3m to research and development of robotics and AI. Out of the industries welcoming this technology with open arms, finance and banking is one of the biggest. It's not hard to see why: when companies are dealing with large amounts of data, handing over control to a machine learning system that can analyse and understand information much faster than a human being is an obvious benefit. Where is this new technology having an impact in the finance sector?

Many of you are old enough to recall the Personal Computer OS "war" of the late 80's and early 90's. I can clearly remember being pressured by my boss to make a choice between IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. I chose the wrong one. Then came the browser war, followed by the smartphone war. The next technology war on the horizon is shaping up to be consumer artificial intelligence (AI) devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri.

It has been a while since Amazon came out with new Echo hardware and according to a recent report, that might change in the coming months. Amazon has reportedly started beta testing the new Echo that will be powered by its artificial intelligence-based smart assistant Alexa. The company is expected to add some major functionality to Echo which will set it apart from the competition. Previous reports have suggested that the new Amazon Echo is going to have support for voice calls. It will enable users to make voice calls to their friends and family by simply issuing voice commands to the assistant.

Silicon Valley investor and web pioneer Marc Andreessen said in 2011 that "software is eating the world." The explosion of app ecosystems seems to prove his point, but things have changed dramatically even since then. These days, it might be more accurate to say that "AI is fueling the software that's eating the world," but I've never been very quotable. In any case, it's not impossible to ignore the normalization of artificial intelligence at this year's Mobile World Congress -- even if a resurrected 17-year-old phone did end up stealing the show. When it comes to the intersection of smartphones and AI, Motorola had the most surprising news at the show.

These days, marketers can't read about their profession without getting bombarded with wild claims about how AI is going to disrupt everything they do. And with the sales and marketing functions evolving so rapidly in recent years, marketers in particular must embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and constantly explore new technologies in order to give their team a competitive edge. That mindset shift, along with new consumer trends -- such as self-driving cars and intelligent voice-first products like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri -- are bringing the possibilities of AI to the forefront of business-to-business marketing technology discussions. But all of this begs the question, "Which AI claims are hype and which are reality?" In order to know what a new technology like AI can bring to the table, it's important to fully understand the problems you're trying to solve.

When it comes to the intersection of smartphones and AI, Motorola had the most surprising news at the show. In case you missed it, Motorola is working with Amazon (and Harman Kardon, most likely) to build a Moto Mod that will make use of Alexa. Even to me, someone who cooled on the Mods concept after an initial wave of interesting accessories slowed to a trickle, this seems like a slam dunk. Even better, Motorola product chief Dan Dery described what the company ultimately wanted to achieve: a way to get assistants like Alexa to integrate more closely with the personal data we keep on our smartphones. In his mind, for instance, it would be ideal to ask an AI make a reservation at a restaurant mentioned in an email a day earlier.

VentureBeat's Bots Channel tracks the most important news and analysis from the exploding field of bots and messaging. Each week, we select the top stories and present them in our free weekly newsletter, BotBeat. We include news stories by VentureBeat staff, guest articles from leading figures in the bots community, and a good number of posts from a wide variety of other outlets. You can subscribe to our BotBeat newsletter to receive this information in your inbox every Thursday. Instead of "Hey, Siri," or "OK, Google," what if you could personalize your device and wake it up accordingly?

An author dying of ovarian cancer has written a dating profile of her husband so he can find "another love story". Amy Krouse Rosenthal lists his best qualities and says she hopes "the right person reads this [and] finds Jason". "I have never been on Tinder, Bumble or eHarmony," she writes in the New York Times. "But I'm going to create a general profile for Jason right here, based on my experience of co-existing in the same house with him for, like, 9,490 days." Amy is known for writing books for children, as well as memoirs about her own family and life.

The relationship between humans and machines has captivated people for years--from robots that can win Jeopardy to those that can sense human emotions, the list is endless. Today, however, machines are no longer simply a novelty. The rise of analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key component of a business' success. In the banking world, there are many examples to point to: self-service tellers, automated loan processing, payments, etc. But there's one in particular that is fascinating--the robo-advisor.

These days, marketers can't read about their profession without getting bombarded with wild claims about how AI is going to disrupt everything they do. And with the sales and marketing functions evolving so rapidly in recent years, marketers in particular must embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and constantly explore new technologies in order to give their team a competitive edge. That mindset shift, along with new consumer trends--such as self-driving cars and intelligent voice-first products like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri--are bringing the possibilities of AI to the forefront of business-to-business marketing technology discussions. But all of this begs the question, "Which AI claims are hype and which are reality?" In order to know what a new technology like AI can bring to the table, it's important to fully understand the problems you're trying to solve.