Just a decade ago, few would have guessed that virtual goods could create a real market. Then the smartphone age sparked a whole new universe of ephemeral, yet lucrative, commerce. "People have gotten much more comfortable with the idea of paying for things that are virtual," says Joost van Dreunen, the co-founder and CEO of SuperData, a gaming research firm. For startups in this fast-growing market, the goods may be fake, but the sales are real. Some of the most promising new areas of business are hidden behind what can sound like Millennial smartphone-speak: Kimoji!

You can watch the Super Bowl online for free, but there are a few catches. And if you're interested in the ads, you may have a surprise in store. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. ET Sunday on Fox. It's true: Some people will be watching the Super Bowl for the actual game on an actual TV. You can join them even if you don't have a cable subscription or a good signal with an antenna.

Last month, Huawei boasted that its new Mate 9 will be the first smartphone to come preloaded with Amazon's Alexa smart voice recognition-and-search software. But it most certainly won't be the last. Beyond the home, it's evident that Amazon is determined to embed Alexa in mobile devices and in offices. Alexa and Echo, Amazon's companion Internet-connected speaker device, already have a strong presence in the living room, making Echo an unexpected hit. In the U.S., more than 8.2 million people have an Echo, according to market research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Let's first talk about what happened in the last 3-4 years – so much of excitement and enthusiasm about robo-advisory startups. Believers said that robo-advisors continuously trade securities and other assets based on long-term predictions they are able to build based on a real-time stream of data and machine learning capabilities. In 2016, assets managed by robo-advisors were estimated to increase by 68% annually and reach $2.2 trillion in five years. Other estimations suggested that robo-advisors will be managing $8 trillion globally by 2020. No wonder there was so much craze around the field of robo-advisors during the last two to three years.

With the U.S. election finally in the rear-view mirror, the marketing community can get back to normal, or at least to debating what is normal now. After a period of rapid technological changes--connecting cars, homes, and humans--insiders agree 2017 will be a year of adapting to many of the recent trends. "We are between two worlds of legacy thinking and the new reality. Those two worlds don't mesh," said David Cohen, president of Magna North America. Part of that middle ground we predicted here--such as the mainstreaming of virtual reality and debates about transparency, fraud, and ad blocking--have come true even faster than expected. Others, such as "social shopping" and marketers having to pay consumers for their data, have met resistance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) might seem like the realm of science fiction, but you might be surprised to find out that you're already using it. AI has a huge effect on your life, whether you're aware of it or not, and its influence is likely to grow in the coming years. Here are 10 examples of artificial intelligence that you're already using every day. Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are all intelligent digital personal assistants on various platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows Mobile). In short, they help find useful information when you ask for it using your voice; you can say "Where's the nearest Chinese restaurant?", "What's on my schedule today?", "Remind me to call Jerry at eight o'clock," and the assistant will respond by finding information, relaying information from your phone, or sending commands to other apps.

San Francisco start-up Forward is betting its hands-on--and very digital approach--to treating patients will help to carve out a niche for the new company in the emerging market for personalized and concierge-style healthcare. Founded by CEO Adrian Aoun, who previously worked as director of special projects for Google, Forward is attempting to shift the traditional healthcare model away from immediate and reactive care to proactive care through the use of technology and artificial intelligence. Google acquired Aoun's first start-up, Wavii.com, in 2014 in a $30 million deal. Wavii became the hub of Google's artificial intelligence business unit to develop more natural language and personal assistant technologies such as voice-activated search queries for the Google search engine. Now Aoun is turning his attention to digital healthcare.

To see into the future, even just by a few minutes, is a superhero-style gift none of us have. Except, in a twist of fate, we've been granted the power of foresight, and have used it to see into the future of smartphones. No, we didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider or suffer a risky experiment-gone-wrong. The phones in question aren't nailed together concepts that'll never be sold, either. They're genuine examples of next-generation phone tech that you can buy today.

In this teaser for an upcoming Super Bowl ad, Baldwin gets help planning a Super Bowl party from Marino and the Amazon Echo. SAN FRANCISCO – After 22 years of sitting the game out, Amazon decided to make its first Super Bowl ad about Echo -- a decision that underlined how aggressively Amazon is pushing the personal assistant/wireless speaker to the mass market. The Seattle online retailer launched Echo, a voice-driven, cloud-connected, wireless speaker last June. It ranked as a favorite entry among many tech reviewers in the new and growing Internet of Things market. But while the Echo has "a cult following, it needs more consumer awareness," said Sucharita Mulpuru, Amazon analyst for Forrester Research.

Imagine Steve Jobs walking out onto the stage in January of 2007, holding up the never-before-seen iPhone, and saying, "It's a phone!" Of course, he didn't do that. Instead, Jobs boasted of launching three new products at once: a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a mobile phone, and an Internet communications device. Since then, the iPhone has become so much more. It's early days, so I won't compare the potential of the voice-controlled device to the iPhone. But the Echo, backed by an artificial intelligence platform named Alexa, is much more than just another Bluetooth speaker.