Every year the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona features the updates and innovations likely to sweep the mobile industry in the year ahead. What will it take to get you jazzed about smartphones again? The industry appears mostly stuck in neutral, as was evident at the Mobile World Congress trade show that took place in Barcelona, Spain, last week. There was a me-too-ness to most of the handsets on display, and it's been this way for a while. It was equally telling that one of the biggest stories to come out of MWC was about the relaunch of the Nokia 3310, a cheap compact throwback phone that debuted around the turn of century.

India's HDFC Bank has partnered with Senseforth to launch an electronic virtual assistant – Eva – to answer customer queries. Powered by an artificial intelligence (AI) based engine, the chatbot is said to be able to "assimilate knowledge from thousands of sources and provide answers in simple language in less than 0.4 seconds". The bank trusts Eva to serve customers better by removing the need to search, browse or call for information about products and services. It expects Eva to become smarter as it learns through its customer interactions and hopes that the programme would grow to handle real banking transactions in the future. Nitin Chugh, country head of digital banking at HDFC Bank, says the bank is "the first to embrace AI bots to address day-to-day queries from customers".

Here's a glimpse into the future of AI and HR via Rob May, CEO and Co-Founder of Talla, which builds intelligent assistants. While human resources has always viewed itself as the means by which an organization maximizes the value of its most crucial asset -- its people -- too many actual employees view HR as "the triage unit for bad workforce practices." HR is who you run to when a coworker is causing a problem, or there's an issue with your employment benefits. Strategic functions never seem to enter the HR equation. Artificial intelligence -- most specifically a combination of machine learning and natural language processing -- has matured to the point that it is practically useful in a workplace setting.

Earlier this year, I predicted 2015 will be the year artificial intelligence enters the conversation for customer service. Two months into the year, we already see this becoming a reality for businesses today. For instance, Deloitte Consulting has recently shared best practices on how to evaluate what artificial intelligence can do for your business, including how cognitive technologies can help generate insights that can reduce costs, improve efficiency or enhance customer service. At the same time, brand experts are writing about how robots are improving customer service and creating new branding channels for organizations. Finally, just last week, my colleague wrote about how artificial intelligence can actually bring the humanity back to customer service – creating a more engaging and personal customer experience that customers will actually love.

To some Artificial Intelligence (AI) may seem like a solely sci-fi concept, but in truth it is already becoming reality in ways we may not realise, with its application within the facilities management function already in use. Aside from virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana, which have already pervaded our day-to-day lives, other forms of AI are steadily making inroads into all sectors, and FM is no exception. Whether it is the use of smart floor sweepers or robot receptionists, AI is one fast-evolving concept that a growing number believe has the potential to not only overhaul the FM industry but the entire professional environment. According to our recent Twitter poll on the subject, just over half of respondents believe that AI is an opportunity to increase their organisation's profit margins. Does this indicate that some in the FM sector already see the potential to save money on staffing costs as robots and machines take over more manual FM services as some of the more sensationalist headlines suggest?

These days, talking to a bot is commonplace. Think Siri, or your chatty banking app. But you wouldn't talk to your toaster like you talk to a friend -- unless your toaster had a great sense of humor. These days, talking to a bot is commonplace. Think Siri, or your chatty banking app.

How can scientists deal with the huge volume of new research publish on a daily basis? How can computers go further than merely parsing scientific papers, and actually suggest hypotheses themselves? When will we see a computer as another member of the lab team, serving hundreds of scientists simultaneously from its huge data set of extant research? This is the work of John Bachman, a systems biology PhD from Harvard Medical School, and Ben Giori, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School's systems pharmacology lab. They're part of Darpa's Big Mechanism project, which is developing technology to read research abstracts and papers to extract pieces of causal mechanisms, then to assemble these pieces into more complete causal models, and to produce explanations.

Here are four case studies on how machines can perform tasks that previously required human intelligence across various industries. The rise of artificial intelligence is the great story of our time. Leaving the laboratory after decades in the making, artificial intelligence, or AI, is infusing itself into many aspects our daily lives – from homes and phones to cars and offices. Machines are now able to perform tasks that previously required human intelligence across various industries. Insurance, once perceived as highly resistant to change, has now accelerated the race for innovation.

Voice is a Big Deal in tech this year. Amazon has probably sold 10m Echos, you couldn't move for Alexa partnerships at CES, Google has made its own and, it seems, this is the new platform. There are a couple of different causes for this explosion, and, also, a couple of problems. First, voice is a big deal because voice input now works in a way that it did not until very recently. The advances in machine learning in the past couple of years mean (to simplify hugely) that computers are getting much better at recognizing what people are saying.

A camera shield for a computer, which allows the user to block the camera when not in use. SAN FRANCISCO – So it looks as if the CIA could potentially break into most smart phone or computer networks, at least according to the stolen documents released by WikiLeaks on Tuesday. Whether you have anything to hide or not, it's a good reminder that in a digital age, keeping your life private requires some work. Here's a list of nine things everyone should be doing already to keep their information relatively confidential, plus four more for the truly paranoid. The most common way the CIA's cyber tools, and hackers for that matter, get into your devices are via phishing emails or texts.