Before you can knock off for the night. However, there's one thing left to do: read your child a bedtime story. In Mattel's world, you might not have to pick up a book, or even put on voices for their favorite characters. That's because it's working on an Echo-style speaker with an assistant called Aristotle. It's built specifically for kids, offering games, facts and soothing sounds on demand.

Hyundai is giving you another way to shout orders at its connected Blue Link cars shortly after it revealed an Amazon Alexa partnership. The company is teaming with Google, letting you give commands to Sante Fe, Sonata or other compatible models via its voice-controlled Assistant. Using a Google Home device, you'll be able to say "OK Google, start my Sante Fe and set the temperature to 72 degrees," or "ask Blue Link to lock my car," to give just a couple examples. Voice-controlled devices like Alexa make a certain amount of sense with connected cars, letting you do certain actions a bit quicker than using a smartphone app. Automakers like Ford, BMW and Hyundai all released "skills" for Echo devices, and Google's Assistant works in a similar way.

The "willing suspension of disbelief" is the idea that the audience (readers, viewers, content consumers) is willing to suspend judgment about the implausibility of the narrative for the quality of the audience's own enjoyment. We do it all the time. Two-dimensional video on our screens is smaller than life and flat and not in real time, but we ignore those facts and immerse ourselves in the stories as if they were real. We have also learned the "conventions" of each medium. While we watch a movie or a video, we don't yell to the characters on the screen "Duck!" or "Look out!" when something is about to happen to them.

Fancy the subtle tap-based controls of Apple's AirPods, but want something that's not quite so conspicuous (or conspicuously targeted at iPhone owners)? It's introducing its second set of wireless earbuds, the M-2, and they promise a taste of AirPod-like control in a subtler design. You only have to tap an earbud to pause your music or answer a call -- no reaching for your phone or fiddling with buttons. It's not as sophisticated as the AirPods (you won't be talking to Siri as easily), but the simplicity remains a big deal. The M-2s are also more ergonomic than their cylindrical ancestors.

The world of voice-controlled computing, nay, voice-controlled living, seemed like it was still a few years away from being mainstream. Amazon's Alexa platform, however, has made it easy for companies to bolt-on the technology to their existing products. Case in point, Dish has announced that you'll soon be able to pair your Hopper DVR with the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot in order to change channels just by speaking. The innovation won't be arriving for a little while, but Dish feels confident that the option will arrive in the first half of the year. So long as your Hopper is connected to the internet, you can use natural voice commands to go to individual channels or bring up movies on-demand by saying "go to AMC" or "Find Game of Thrones."

The term AI is being bandied about in all forms of media, but do many people actually understand how Artificial Intelligence is now becoming part of the consumer-electronics landscape in some of the most everyday products – almost making smart technology seem old hat by comparison. The reality is that in order for AI to function, you need smart devices to metaphorically'join the dots' to create an AI solution that works for you in your environment. Probably the most recognised mainstream AI product to come to market is the Amazon Echo, which is expected to sell three million units in 2016, with forecasts of 10m for 2017. You'll know the product – it's that black cylinder with a blue pulsating light on top, promoted through those awful adverts where some chap asks Alexa to add tennis balls and bananas to his shopping list. In essence, Amazon Echo and its sibling Dot – which has no speaker but effectively does the same thing – are intended to be your assistant, connecting all your smart devices.

Over the past few weeks, Google Home has been picking up the ability to do things like order pizza and play games, but a new partnership with Hyundai looks to expand the power of the voice-powered speaker beyond our living rooms. At CES this week, Hyundai is showing off a new integration with Google Home that'll let you start or lock your car just by saying "OK, Google." According to a press release, capable Hyundai cars will be able to tap into Blue Link services like remote Start with climate control, destination search, and door lock by asking Google Assistant to perform the selected action. As the Korean carmaker explains, "Once a customer has successfully linked his or her account, Remote Service commands will only be sent to Hyundai vehicles after the Google Assistant prompts owners for their Blue Link Personal Identification Number." Hyundai will be showing off the technology at CES this week.

There has been no shortage of promises recently about how deeply the application of machine-driven artificial intelligence is expected to change our society in the next decade. Microsoft announced its ambition to conquer cancer using natural language processing to analyze research papers in close to real time. Google--now a self-proclaimed AI-first company--will make computers sound just like humans by applying machine learning to a vast corpus of human voice samples. Facebook is using AI to analyze satellite footage to locate all human life and fulfill its promise to bring the internet to the world's entire population. And the list goes on.

In preparation for the new year, PerformanceIN continues its annual tradition of connecting with performance marketing experts to get their single biggest prediction for the industry in 2017. In this piece, Steven Ledgerwood, MD at Emarsys, sees artificial intelligence being a big hit among marketers, starting from next year. Today's customer has a massive amount of choice when shopping. However, they are increasingly busy and constantly on the move, which makes it difficult for brands to stand out in an ocean of available products and offers. How can marketers create personalised offers for their customers in 2017, especially when considering the current explosion of shopping channels and enormous amounts of customer data?

If sharing is caring, then Amazon cares an awful lot about Lenovo, the Chinese electronics manufacturer that is building a version of Echo...with Amazon's blessing. Lenovo is calling its Echo clone Smart Assistant and like Echo it is powered by Amazon's Alexa digital assistant. That means users will be able to do all the same things they already can with Echo, but with a competing smart speaker that adds a bit of style to the Echo's cylindrical design. Obviously Lenovo and Amazon came to some kind of licensing agreement here, one that Amazon feels is worth the risk of cannibalizing sales of its own Echo. Or perhaps Amazon is not sweating the prospect too much considering that recent data pegs Echo sales at more than 5 million units in its first two years.