Digital personal assistants like Siri, Cortana, Amazon Echo, and Google Assistant are fundamentally changing the way consumers engage with search technology. When searchers perform a vocal search, they only receive one answer in response, making the search landscape more competitive than ever. What can businesses do to ensure that they stay on trend vocally?

These voice commands come built in to Alexa and will work as soon as you switch on your Echo device. "Alexa, play music by R.E.M.." If you've signed up for Amazon Music, you can ask for a genre of music, music to match a certain mood, or a particular artist right away. You can also add Spotify if you prefer. "Alexa, what's the weather like?" "Alexa, what will the weather be like tomorrow in Sydney?" Alexa handles all of your weather forecasting needs, whether you want to know if you need an umbrella later or want a long-range forecast for a particular part of the world. Your Echo can read out brief snippets of news for you.

Smart home assistants are becoming more useful, but there's something missing from our AI hubs from Amazon and Google. Sure, it's fun to call up Alexa or Google Assistant with nothing but a word -- but the personalities are housed in speakers, which aren't exactly dynamic, groundbreaking technology. Where are the super-smart AI butlers we can interact with via multiple verbal and physical commands, like the ridiculously responsive screen-based AI systems in our favorite sci-fi movies like Minority Report and Iron Man? A new in-home smart display and AI assistant might just be the first step to fulfilling those Tony Stark fantasies. Duo looks like just about any other mirror you'd hang on your living room wall -- until you start giving it commands and swiping through its programs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most talked about technologies in recent times. It is capable of increasing enterprise revenue through identifying, analysing and, most importantly, acting on the insights from underlying data. The pertinent question is, "Should we wait for AI to evolve fully and then apply it or should we look at specific applications to solve business challenges?" The combination of parallel processing power, massive data sets, advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities are spawning varied versions of AI systems. Today, AI capabilities vary from specific/narrow to super, all-encompassing AI. Narrow, or specific AI, is an intelligent assistant that can aid humans in making complex decisions and enhance their cognitive powers by processing vast amounts of data.

Have you ever sat at your desk and furtively swiped away on Tinder? New data, compiled by enterprise mobile security and data management firm Wandera, shows that we may look busy at our desks but sometimes we're just focused on getting busy. The company looked at work-issued devices and found that dating app usage has grown by 69 percent (heh, heh) in the past year. The average workday swiping session lasts seven minutes and 51 seconds, and people usually log on to a dating app between five and six times each week. It works out that, if you've got dating apps on your work phone, you're spending about 47 minutes a week using them.

Make no mistake: We're still probably at least a decade away from any kind of meaningful shift away from the smartphone. Assuming we're still eating at all, I guess.) Yet, piece by piece, the groundwork for the eventual demise of the smartphone is being laid by Elon Musk, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and a countless number of startups that still have a part to play. And, let me tell you: If and when the smartphone does die, that's when things are going to get really weird for everybody. Not just in terms of individual products but in terms of how we actually live our everyday lives and maybe our humanity itself.

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.