As futuristic as the year 2025 sounds, it is now less than eight years away. Will time travel, flying cars and summer vacations to Mars be in the cards? Probably not, but drone delivery, chatbots and an AI-driven retail industry are near certainties. And the people driving these changes, the "digital native" generations, are quite open to disrupting, if not destroying, old retail practices. Sure, McKinsey predicts brick-and-mortar stores will still account for approximately 85% of U.S. retail sales in 2025, but will the shopper journey be the same as it is today?

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. Whether you're shopping for Valentine's day or some other occasion, shopping for guys is hard. While every guy thinks they're easy to shop for, if we're being honest that isn't remotely true. Personally, I usually only think about what I want right before I'm about to buy it.

Google doesn't do a lot of paid advertising, so when it does we've got a good clue that Google management is really committed to the product or service, at least for now (remember Google?). Google is currently running a "Talk to Google" campaign on TV and Radio in multiple European countries to promote voice driven searches using their "mobile" search app. I've heard a similar "Spricht mit Google" ad on Berlin's Radio Eins.

We study an online multi-task learning setting, in which instances of related tasks arrive sequentially, and are handled by task-specific online learners. We consider an algorithmic framework to model the relationship of these tasks via a set of convex constraints. To exploit this relationship, we design a novel algorithm -- COOL -- for coordinating the individual online learners: Our key idea is to coordinate their parameters via weighted projections onto a convex set. By adjusting the rate and accuracy of the projection, the COOL algorithm allows for a trade-off between the benefit of coordination and the required computation/communication. We derive regret bounds for our approach and analyze how they are influenced by these trade-off factors. We apply our results on the application of learning users' preferences on the Airbnb marketplace with the goal of incentivizing users to explore under-reviewed apartments.

It's clear artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will dramatically affect the job market, but there's conflicting ideas on just how soon this will happen. Some believe it's imminent -- possibly fueled by developments like the Japanese insurance company replacing over 30 employees with robots -- but it's not that cut and dried. Many of the jobs that will be automated are the same jobs companies have been outsourcing for years: customer support, data entry, accounting, etc. Others are jobs they simply cannot fill due to decreases in headcount. Either way, as transactions and expectations for real-time output increase, businesses are struggling to meet this demand and must digitize their operations to remain competitive.

Matchmaking tradition believes that people are brought together by shared likes and passions, but a new dating app matches you with people who hate the same things. Hater CEO Brendan Alper believes you're more likely to hit it off with people who share mutual hates, and reveals that top current hates include coriander and the US 2016 Presidential campaign.

Two of the biggest trends in technology right now are machine learning and artificial intelligence. In fact, the two terms are used almost interchangeably. However, there are subtle but important differences between them both. In many ways, machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. Also, the term AI is older than machine learning.

NEW YORK--Android Wear hasn't exactly been a wrist-roaring success since its debut in 2014. The pressure is squarely on Google to make good with the Android Wear 2.0 software release that debuts Friday on two new LG smartwatches, especially as it faces completion not just from the Apple Watch, but from Samsung's Gear S3, which relies on a flavor of software called Tizen. The new Android software, which will also be coming to other devices, indeed represents a step forward for such watches--there's support for cellular connectivity, the presence of the Google Assistant, a dedicated Google Play Store, among other enhancements. And you can use the watch more often than before without having to rely on a nearby phone. Still, whether all this moves the clock far enough along in Google's favor is debatable.

Technology is always evolving, and marketers must evolve with it in order to ensure brand success. While there are many factors that affect marketers on a day-to-day basis such as social media, budgeting and reaching audiences on an emotional level, here are six of the top technologies are impacting marketing the most. Gartner analysts predict that by 2020, 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be conducted without a screen. With the rise of voice-activated technology like Google Home and Amazon Echo, consumers will not be limited to traditional screen-based browsing, Gartner predicts, especially since web browsing will be extended to other areas of daily activities such as driving and exercising. Artificial intelligence (AI) means more than another way to shop--it can help marketers make smart decisions.

The good: Better complications, Includes Google Assistant, Can run standalone apps, Improved fitness tracking, Refined interface that's easier to use, Works on Android and iOS The bad: Mostly playing catch up to Apple and fitness trackers, Smart reply suggestions don't always work well Who should buy: Android phone owners interested in smartwatches will be pleased with the improvements coming in 2.0, but the software won't do much to convince smartwatch skeptics When Android Wear first debuted in 2014, smartwatches were still largely unfamiliar territory, and Google was just figuring out how to adapt Android to wearable devices. More than two years later, Google's refined take on those efforts are set to debut. LG's Watch Style and Watch Sport, out Feb. 10, will be the first smartwatches to ship with Android Wear 2.0, the massive software update Google unveiled last spring. The refresh gives Google-powered smartphones more ammunition to compete with rival devices, especially the market-leading Apple Watch. Among Android Wear 2.0's biggest improvements is how much easier it is to navigate. It's simpler to launch apps, manage notifications, and customize watch faces.