The past decade has witnessed tremendous influx of technology across all aspects of business operations. Organizations are increasingly turning to automation, artificial intelligence and robotics to bring about a transformation in their revenue generation capability, reduction in costs and increase in efficiency. Indian banking leaders like ICICI and HDFC have piloted using humanoids/robots to bring about operational efficiency by intelligently automating many of the backend processes and customer facing areas. On a similar note, global banks like Mizuho and Sberbank use virtual assistants to enhance customer experience. Technological advances are increasingly being viewed as game changers in the ever evolving business landscape.

Someone made a lot of new friends over the holidays. Her name is Alexa, and along with her acquaintances (perhaps frenemies?) Cortana and Siri, she's about to become as much a part of the daily life of American households as Alfred the butler is at Wayne Manor. Except that Alfred, for all his talents, can't tell Batman exactly what time the cable repairman will arrive this afternoon, or the current balance in his bank account (not that billionaire Bruce Wayne would care). The implications of 2017, the year virtual assistants really arrived, will be immense for business.

Conversational AI is pushing deeper into enterprise with Workfit, a new startup promising to make conference call follow-ups and mid-meeting CRM updates as easy as playing a song or checking the weather on Google Home or Amazon Echo. Battery Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Salesforce Ventures and a number of angels joined together to finance a $5.5 million seed investment in the startup. Workfit's announcement is underscored by a general uptick in activity around conversational AI for enterprise. Amazon's Alexa, perhaps the most enterprise-friendly of the popular conversational tools available today, boasts integrations with companies like Hipchat and Sisense for both team collaboration and data recall. Of course, the reality is that most meetings are not limited to a single conference room and even fewer have an Echo listening in.

As long as you don't mind having an always-on microphone with a direct connection to Google, the company's smart speaker, Google Home, is a fantastic little device. Google seems to realize that, and right now at Best Buy and the Google Store you can get a free Chromecast ($35) or Chromecast Audio ($30) with the purchase of a Google Home. The smart speaker is offered at its regular price of $129. To take advantage of the deal you must add the Chromecast to your cart manually before checkout. The Chromecast Ultra is not available as part of this sale.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from any business incentives. Smart home tech is the hot new thing, but it can be pretty overwhelming if you're just getting your feet wet. For newbies, it makes sense to start with something simple, and it doesn't get any simpler than the humble smart plug. These cheap, compact devices plug into traditional wall sockets, upgrading them with remote control, scheduling, and power usage monitoring via smartphone apps.

The topic of artificial intelligence is everyone's lips lately. Just Google the term and you'll see a plethora of articles and information on the subject, generating daily -- and not just from academic journals, but in mainstream media and pop culture. We talk about artificial intelligence quite a bit on our own blog, so it's a good idea to brush up on some of the vocabulary you'll be hearing a lot more about as AI becomes more ubiquitous in our lives. Check out our handy glossary and then test yourself with our fun quiz. Or more simply, having machines "think like a human."

Amazon is working to make its Alexa a better listener. The Seattle-based technology giant has been developing a feature that would allow the voice assistant that powers its Echo line of speakers to distinguish between individual users based on their voices, according to people familiar with Amazon's Alexa strategy. The sources declined to be identified by name because they are not authorized to talk about the company's future product plans. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Alexa, like Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, can interpret and respond to voice commands such as "How's the weather?" or "What movies are playing tonight?"

They are in fact such a persistent feature in society that it is not unsurprising to find these stereotypes -- gender, in particular -- still perpetuated in the artificial intelligence bots that have been produced over the years. These gender stereotypes are played out in the roles that these bots are assigned to perform in an industry and their overall personalities. Female bots typically perform more administrative and secretarial roles such as assisting in the completion of routine tasks, scheduling meetings and customer service. Male bots on the other hand, often perform more analytical roles like providing financial advice and paralegal services. Recently, a growing group of companies have started to buck this trend by choosing to create gender-neutral bots instead, sparking discussions in the tech industry on the necessity and consequences of assigning gender (and with that stereotypical traits) to bots in the first place.

At present, predictive analytics is the most used form of AI in enterprise and companies are focusing on innovation, patenting their AI developments at a faster rate than ever before. Join us as we explore the rise of artificial intelligence in six charts including the top investors in AI and the most used AI enterprise solutions. As of June 2016, artificial intelligence received $974m of funding. This year's funding is set to surpass 2015's total and CB Insights suggests that 200 AI-focused companies have raised nearly $1.5 billion in equity funding. AI isn't limited to the business sphere, in fact the personal robot market, including'care-bots', could reach $17.4bn by 2020.

Sony Corp. and Line Corp., Japan's most popular messaging service, are considering joining forces to develop devices powered by artificial intelligence. The companies are exploring opportunities around digital personal assistant technology to co-create a new communication experience, Sony said in a statement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday. Sony unveiled concept earphones powered by Xperia Agent, a virtual butler that responds to voice commands and head gestures. While Sony's Xperia smartphones are an also-ran in a market dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai has resisted pressure to shutter the mobile business. He argues it will serve as a springboard into the nascent market for wearable and interconnected devices known as the Internet of Things.