"Listen to me as I speak, do what I say and give me what I demand", – the best way to depict the ancient times of kings, where everyone was bound to obey them. Not while ago, the time has come for everyone to say the command and let the courtiers do the rest. However, the courtiers are not humans anymore as it was in the ancient times – machines have replaced the humans and the kings are common people. All I am talking about is Artificial Intelligence- where machines can think and work like humans. The popularity of artificial intelligence is no longer new as everyone whether using iPhone or not would be well aware of SIRI.

AI and machine learning are taking the world by storm, and that includes the world of marketing. AI-powered software platforms for marketers are also growing in popularity, but a report by Forrester (article is behind a paywall) suggests looking--and learning--before you leap. Everyone has a notion of what artificial intelligence is. We use Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant every day, read about self-driving cars, and hear about how automation is replacing everyone with thinking robots and we can't help but form a concept about what AI is--and it's one that is often incorrect. Knowing what AI is, Forrester's report says, is a key part of making the right decision to truly make it work for your business.

Harry Chiang is a Financial Analyst at I Know First. "The big paradox here is that people think technology will lead to banking becoming more and more automated and less and less personalized, but what we've seen coming through here is the view that technology will actually help banking become a lot more personalized." Over the past few years, news articles have casually floated the term'Artificial Intelligence' around at an increasing rate. It's one of those buzzwords that somehow finds its way in to every tech-related conversation. Even the least tech-savvy person has a vague notion of what it is. The problem is, some of the more tech-savvy person don't have a much clearer notion of what it is either. The definition of AI ranges and has vague boundaries.

Businesses are ramping up their use of virtual assistants – or "conversational user interfaces" -- for customer interactions. I just heard that Gartner is now predicting that by 2020, many of us will be interacting with AI-powered customer assistants than we do with our spouses. While this may be a disturbing prospect for many, it leaves no doubt that organizations are now engaged in an arms race in adopting artificial intelligence to interact with massive numbers of customers. Businesses are ramping up their use of virtual assistants – or "conversational user interfaces" -- for customer interactions, adding capabilities for increasingly sophisticated questions. Josiah Motley, writing in The Next Web, also observes that while Gartner's estimate puts the degree of AI-driven customer chats at 85% within three years, this doesn't consider the range of behind-the-scenes jobs.

Line Corp. said Thursday it plans to focus more on artificial intelligence, saying AI-related services will be the next big thing after the smartphone boom. "Because of the smartphone trend, Line was born and we have grown this far. But looking at five or 10 years from now, what comes after the smartphone era? It's the era of AI," said Jun Masuda, Line's chief strategy and marketing officer, at a news conference in Tokyo, where the company disclosed its strategy going forward. The Tokyo-based messaging-app giant said the new core service it is developing will be called Clova, an internet-based AI system or "virtual assistant."

Already, robotic process automation (rules-based software) is rapidly advancing from handling traditional applications for repetitive tasks to handling continuously changing tasks. And, in fact, AI will gradually replace humans in some functions like customer service, personal assistants and document processing. Indeed, they're even thinner on the ground than they were in 2008 when, answering a similar question, CEOs indicated people with technological skills are more plentiful today than ever before. But one thing's clear: business leaders in all industries and functions must move rapidly to drive value from AI.

The artificial intelligence market is still in its relatively early stages, but a player in the market has received a large amount of funding. Element AI, an AI company based in Montreal, announced Wednesday it had received $102 million in Series A funding. Element AI operates both as an incubator for AI development and as a consulting firm-like organization for companies that want to integrate AI applications into their day-to-day operations. The company, which was co-founded by noted machine learning researcher Yoshua Bengio, received its large funding round from firms and sources including Intel Capital and NVIDIA. The company, which was originally founded in October, plans to use the round to bolster its staff, internal development and potentially to invest in projects it helps to incubate.

The most visible examples of AI, however, are the customer service rendering digital assistants, and chatbots such as Erica, aLVin, Eva, and MyKai, which are becoming familiar names to banking consumers. It has taken 50 years since the launch of Eliza--the first chatbot to mimic human conversation – for the technology to evolve to its current state, where its natural language processing ability is strong enough to answer queries, respond to voice commands, render services, make recommendations and initiate actions. Our recent report titled'Amplifying Human Potential: Towards Purposeful Artificial Intelligence' indicates that AI adoption is on the rise and by year 2020 it will contribute, 39% increase in revenue and 37% decrease in operating costs for businesses. AI is also being deployed by banks in non-customer facing tasks like credit risk management, where machine learning algorithms identify repayment patterns and predict the chances of default.

When Swedbank customers face a problem, they reach out to Nina, the bank's virtual assistant. Visitors to Mizuho Bank are greeted by Pepper, a humanoid robot standing four feet tall. Santander allows payments to be activated by voice, and JP Morgan Chase now uses machine learning to review commercial loan agreements in seconds, a task that used to take 3,60,000 manhours every year. Wherever you look in the world of financial services, you will find some form of artificial intelligence (AI) at work. AI technologies such as machine learning and speech recognition are quietly working behind the scenes to improve lending decisions and prevent fraud.

Amazon debuted the Dash Wand today, a $20 device with a magnet on the back that can stick to your refrigerator. For all purchases made today, the Amazon Dash Wand comes with a $20 gift certificate, making it effectively free for Prime members who spend more than $35. The Dash Wand is the latest Alexa-enabled device to come to market, following the Echo Show and Echo Look, devices that brought a visual interface and computer vision to the Alexa experience. The Dash Wand fits in your palm and is the size of a small remote control. The device can scan bar codes to add items to your Amazon shopping list, but press the button on top and you can speak to Alexa for all the things Alexa does, from controlling voice apps to calling your mom or ordering a pizza.