In almost every list discussing future trends in the events industry, artificial intelligence is named. Along with developments in virtual and augmented reality, A.I. is breaking ground, not only in its capacities to serve human needs, but also in its potential for transforming customer service. In particular, A.I. allows for a heightened level of personalized service. As machines perceptively learn a user's behavior through data gathered from the user's interactions, this information is used to power highly relevant suggestions and services. Relevance combines with a natural user experience when smart technology such as chatbots provide a human-like interface.

As Kayak attempts to build a better virtual travel agent, the tech firm is expanding beyond its core website and mobile app, and establishing a presence on additional types of technology platforms. Since mid-2015, Stamford, CT-based Kayak has made its travel-search service available to consumers on Apple Watch, Slack, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Apple TV, Amazon Alexa devices, and Google Home. The integrations with these outside platforms illustrate how businesses are adapting to changing consumer habits and trying to figure out the right ways to interact with users across an array of apps and devices. The moves also speak to the growing emphasis by consumer-focused businesses on deploying products and services powered by artificial intelligence-related technologies, such as chatbots on Facebook Messenger and Slack, and voice-controlled virtual personal assistants like Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Apple's Siri. "We have to be where the consumer is," says Giorgos Zacharia, Kayak's chief technology officer. "The consumer should be able to use Kayak in whatever their platform of choice is."

Both artificial intelligence and blockchain technology have made major advances in the past few years. Could they be combined to bring us the money of the future? Recently, many advances have been made in the field of artificial intelligence. In the past few years, we saw artificial intelligence beat one of the world's best players at Go, save drivers from car crashes, and predict the outcome of the US Presidential Election. Many companies, both established market leaders and new startups, have started to incorporate artificial intelligence into mainstream products.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is seemingly everywhere today. Whether it's using a virtual assistant like Siri or Alexa, improving sales insights through analytics, or hiring the best talent with AI-based recruiting software, many businesses have already started incorporating this technology into their everyday processes. While you may not necessarily need to make artificial intelligence the core of your operations right now, most experts agree that AI's role and importance in business will only continue to grow. Nine members from Forbes Technology Council each shared a way that companies can begin preparing for AI right now. I think for smaller companies, it is too early to create a plan, but I do think it is important to stay updated on AI and how it is being implemented in an applicable industry.

Newswire) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the next big growth areas for the mobile industry according to a white paper released by IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, ahead of Mobile World Congress. "Smartphones will both be the interface for consumer AI and deliver the vast amount of data technology companies need to train AI systems" "We see AI making smart devices even smarter with improved user experiences," said Ian Fogg, director of mobile and telecom analysis at IHS Markit. "Existing AI agents like Apple's Siri and Google Assistant will expand across the industry, complemented by embedded AI in all parts of mobile devices from cameras, to audio, to machine." "Smartphones will both be the interface for consumer AI and deliver the vast amount of data technology companies need to train AI systems," Fogg said. Software investments and partnerships are critical for hardware companies to create smarter AI-enabled experiences, said the IHS Markit white paper.

Please, everyone: don't ever, EVER just blindly follow directions from randos you follow on Twitter. Certain groups on the social network (read: teens) have tweeted this month to encourage followers with iPhones to give Siri a simple numerical command, "108," and wait to see what happens next. It's presented as yet another mindless Siri trick, but it's much more serious than that. Instead of just telling a stupid joke or, as one person claimed, unlocking a mini-Biebs show, Siri will initiate a call to the nearest Emergency Services. If you're not ready for it, you might not be able to cancel the call.

"We're excited to work with GE Lighting to bring Alexa to their LED lamp and enable new types of voice experiences," said Aaron Brown, Director of Alexa. "Voice is the future of home automation and the combination of Alexa with the GE LED table lamp, provides people with a simple and frictionless way to interact with their homes." To propel the connected home experience, GE is not only relying on inventors within its own walls, but drawing inspiration from companies like Amazon, real-world homeowners it's learning from and incubating with everyday inventors. The Alexa-enabled GE lamp drew inspiration from GE Lighting's real-world living labs, whereby the company tests lighting and connected home features and functionality with real-world consumers to learn and iterate based on their feedback. The concept also was influenced by a recent crowdsourcing challenge where GE, MAKER MEDIA and Hackster partnered to solicit makers, from college students to data scientists, to bring LEDs to life in new and unexpected ways. The winning ideas, which will be considered as part of future connected lighting designs, included lighting that notifies you when you are sitting idle for too long and encourages you to get moving; lighting-based motion detection that syncs with security services; a lit crib mobile that detects a baby's heart rate and oxygen levels to protect against SIDS; and lighting that tracks activity in the home to know who is home and where they are to customize lighting based on an individual's preferences and habits. The Alexa-embedded lamp will be designed in part by Richard Clarkson, famed designer of The Cloud, a cloud-shaped ceiling fixture that produces a motion-triggered lightning and thunder performance. GE's C by GE table lamp with Alexa will be available for pre-orders as part of GE's C by GE connected lighting products in early 2017 on www.CbyGE.com

A new global study finds several new categories of human jobs emerging, requiring skills and training that will take many companies by surprise. The threat that automation will eliminate a broad swath of jobs, across the world economy is now well established. As artificial intelligence (AI) systems become ever more sophisticated, another wave of job displacement will almost certainly occur. But here's what we've been overlooking: Many new jobs will also be created -- jobs that look nothing like those that exist today. In Accenture's global study of more than 1,000 large companies already using or testing AI and machine-learning systems, we identified the emergence of entire categories of new, uniquely human jobs.

Instead, they might ask their Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri or a text-based chatbot for help. This week, GSA launched a pilot that would walk federal agencies through the process of setting up virtual assistants, powered by machine-learning and artificial intelligence technology, which can eventually be deployed to citizens. The goal isn't just to produce more "intelligent personal assistants," or IPAs, GSA's Emerging Citizen Technology Office lead Justin Herman told Nextgov. It's also to build out a structure internally, complete with toolkits and guides, so agencies can decide for themselves whether this technology is worthwhile, he explained. "The easiest part of this is actually building them," Herman added.

According to Forrester Tech Radar for B2B Marketing Technology and SD'16 (SiriusDecisions conference 2016), two of the hottest trends last year were ABM (Account-Based Marketing) and Predictive Marketing. I'm sure you all are now busy with deploying your ABM initiatives. Many of you have embraced or thinking of Predictive Marketing. AI is the red hot topic that is being discussed at c-level in all organizations. We all are beneficiaries of AI in our daily lives; from Alexa and Siri to TacoBot, we are reaping the rewards of AI.