If you're one of those who can't wait to get Alexa home, this year is definitely the year. Major brands like LG and General Electric announced at CES2017 this week that Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa will be introduced into household items such as refrigerators and lamps. But it's the drivers who might be most thrilled: Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan and BMW are all giving voice assistants a go in their upcoming rides in 2017. Ford and Volkswagen are taking Amazon's Alexa, while Nissan and BMW are going for Microsoft's Cortana. Both voice assistants can do pretty cool things – such as resuming listening to an audiobook in the car you paused midway from a separate device. You'll also be able to email on the road, and receive reminders on restaurant reservations.

Ford cars will soon offer Alexa, but also competitive agents. Amazon's Alexa voice agent has been the biggest surprise hit for the mammoth online retailer since it moved into the cloud storage business with Amazon Web Services. Alexa showed up at CES 2017 in full force. As Larry Dignan notes, the agent picked up friends in high places, including Ford, Whirlpool, Dish Network, Huawei, Hyundai, Mattel, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and ADT. That shouldn't be a surprise to those who noted the rise of Alexa at CES 2016.

Since its founding nearly 15 years ago, Sonos has amassed a devoted following among audio enthusiasts for its high-end, WiFi-connected speakers. But now its business is endangered by a new breed of speakers powered by artificial intelligence assistants from the likes of Google and Amazon. They're starting to eat into the company's bottom line. In the midst of that change, Sonos cofounder John MacFarlane is stepping down as CEO after leading the company since 2002. Sonos president Patrick Spence will be taking over as CEO.

It's the perfect work companion for meme fans – a robot that sits on your desk and communicates entirely through GIFs. Called Peeqo, this personal robotic assistant consists of a Raspberry Pi micro, motors, numerous microphones, a USB speaker and an attached LCD screen. The pint-sized machine uses voice recognition from Google Speech API and API.ai to listen and respond to your queries. Peeqo is a personal robotic assistant consists of a Raspberry Pi micro, motors, microphones, a USB speaker and an attached LCD screen.This pint-sized machine uses voice recognition from Google Speech API and API.ai to listen to your queries to respond with the appropriate GIFs When users ask him a question, a light on the back of its head turns on, which signals he is thinking about the query. The robot also has a camera that lets it to record what is'sees' and it can play music from Spotify when asked.

Just don't expect a human to walk through the office door. Every consultant and research firm, including McKinsey, Gartner, Forrester and Constellation Research, predict this will be the year of bots, specifically chatbots. Just so we're all on the same page, a bot (short for "robot") is an automated program that runs over the internet. Chatbots simulate conversation, ideally making it feel like you're chatting back and forth as you would with a human. Chatbots are powered by a rules engine or artificial intelligence and simulate conversation with audio, text or both.

Nobody wants their company's core competency to be managing data in a database. We feel the same way about AI." In many ways, Hammond represents a wave of entrepreneurs who are counting on the cloud to help them make AI less exotic and more accessible.

Using the device's voice command assistant, which is called Alexa, a six-year-old girl in Dallas, Texas, managed to order a $160 (£130) doll house and a tin of biscuits. That sparked a news report on CW6 in San Diego, California, after which presenter Jim Patton said: "I love the little girl saying'Alexa order me a doll house'." According to the TV station, the broadcast on Thursday sparked complaints from "viewers all over San Diego" who said Mr Patton's words had been interpreted by their Amazon Echo devices as a command to buy more doll houses. Amazon has said any "accidental" purchases can be returned for free. Users have also been advised a four-digit security code can be added to the Echo to stop unauthorised orders.

After 14 years at the helm, Sonos CEO and co-founder John MacFarlane has stepped down. He has also resigned from the company's board or directors, but will remain with Sonos to work on other projects and serve as a mentor to employees. MacFarlane's transition is the latest in a handful of personnel moves that began last year. Sonos announced layoffs last March shortly before product head Marc Whitten left the company. Former president and chief commercial officer Patrick Spence will take over as CEO.

The leading technology companies are trying to distinguish their ecosystems with rival artificial intelligence tools.

Late last year, just in time for Christmas shopping, Rachel Rhoads got a nice surprise. One of her secret savings accounts had grown to $900 behind her back. Rhoads, a 37-year-old Los Angeles-based sales director for a jewelry line, has an account with Digit, a financial technology company with an algorithm that tracks users' income and spending patterns. It painlessly spirits small amounts of money out of checking and into a savings account every two or three days. "I just thought it was such a good idea, to set it and forget it," said Rhoads, who says she is "like a squirrel" in her approach to saving.