Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way from science fiction to reality, in applications like self-driving cars, personal AI systems like Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant, and home assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home. AI is also under some pressure from people who fear its impact on society in terms of privacy and job security. A number of efforts are underway to both ensure that AI is developed with society's concerns in mind and to help assuage those concerns as more and more people are exposed to AI in their daily lives. Today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke about a number of AI concerns during an interview at the DLD conference in Munich, as Bloomberg reports. Microsoft is, of course, one of the leaders in applying AI in real-life applications, and so far the company is focusing on how AI can help make us more productive.

Vizio's living room devices already play nicely with Google services, but wouldn't it be nice if you could use Google voice control as well? All of Vizio's SmartCast-equipped devices, including recent TVs, soundbars and speakers, just got support for Google Home. If you want to watch a movie on Netflix, you don't even have to wake your TV -- say the right words to Google's smart speaker and it'll start playing on your set. You can also pause, skip songs and tweak the volume without touching a button. If you're willing to buy Google Home, you're not dependent on busting out a phone or tablet to get the most out of Vizio's ecosystem.

Microsoft is looking to put Cortana front and center on Android, as a new update will add the AI assistant to your lockscreen. The update is currently in beta, so while it isn't available to all users yet, it should be arriving sometime in the next few weeks. Of course, if you're a beta tester for the Cortana app, you can get this extra functionality right now, but everyone else will have to wait. Cortana will function just like any other lockscreen shortcut. Once you allow it to take up residence there, you'll see a Cortana icon appear near the bottom.

The next BriefingsDirect Voice of the Customer digital transformation case study highlights how high-performing big-data analysis powers an innovative artificial intelligence (AI)-based investment opportunity and evaluation tool. We'll learn how LogitBot in New York identifies, manages, and contextually categorizes truly massive and diverse data sources. By leveraging entity recognition APIs, LogitBot not only provides investment evaluations from across these data sets, it delivers the analysis as natural-language information directly into spreadsheets as the delivery endpoint. This is a prime example of how complex cloud-to core-to edge processes and benefits can be managed and exploited using the most responsive big-data APIs and services. To describe how a virtual assistant for targeting investment opportunities is being supported by cloud-based big-data services, we're joined by Mutisya Ndunda, Founder and CEO of LogitBot and Michael Bishop, CTO of LogicBot, in New York. The discussion is moderated by BriefingsDirect's Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Gardner: Let's look at some of the trends driving your need to do what you're doing with AI and bots, bringing together data, and then delivering it in the format that people want most. Ndunda: LogitBot is all about trying to eliminate friction between people who have very high-value jobs and some of the more mundane things that could be automated by AI. Today, in finance, the industry, in general, searches for investment opportunities using techniques that have been around for over 30 years.

Over the past few years the CES trade show has become a familiar post-holidays pilgrimage for many of the country's biggest marketers. They see the event as a way to get a sneak peek at the latest tech gadgets and technologies that can help them engage with their customers. This year marketing executives from companies such as Coca-Cola, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Campbell Soup and PepsiCo Inc. made their way to Las Vegas for the gathering. The convention was jam-packed with everything from self-driving cars to robots that play chess to Procter & Gamble's air-freshener spray that can connect with Alphabet Inc.'s Nest home to automatically release pleasant scents in the home. But there was one category that seemed to especially win over marketers: virtual assistants.

These were all prime fields of growth and innovation in 2016 and we can expect these trends to continue into next year and probably far beyond. In truth 2017 is likely to be the year when many of these technologies hit the mainstream – rather than something only those companies with the largest corporate budgets and most tech-friendly executive teams. A strong growth in the availability of technology delivered "as-a-service" through cloud platforms, as well as hardware improvements in the form of affordable sensor and display technologies, should help to bring into reality the "democratization" of data-driven enterprise which has become fashionable to talk about this year. So here is a run-through of my key predictions for the next year. Organizations wanting to stay ahead of the curve will want to ensure they are exploring all of the opportunities indicated by these trends.

Cortana for Android and iOS is looking better than ever after a facelift in December. Now with the overhaul finished, Microsoft has another plan for the Android edition of Cortana. MSPowerUser recently spotted the ability to add Cortana to an Android phone's lock screen in the testing version of Cortana (beta) on Android--that's right, there's a beta for the beta. Users in the testing program are seeing a pop-up window inside the Cortana app that asks them if they want to enable Cortana on the lock screen. Once approved, users see a Cortana icon on the lock screen and are able to swipe it to get access to Microsoft's voice assistant without unlocking the phone. It's not clear if Cortana replaces the Google Now microphone in the lower left corner of the lock screen or adds another icon to it.

If arranging meetings have become a bothersome chore, Mimetic.ai's Evie could be just the thing. Evie, a virtual personal assistant, is capable of talking to the other party and scheduling the right meeting time convenient for both parties without your direct intervention. I found it ridiculously easy to use. After signing up on the Singapore-based firm's website, I was prompted to connect my calendar, either Google's or Office365, thereafter which I simply selected the time slots where I'd be available for meetings.

Is that an AI in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? The consumerization of IT describes the reversal of traditional enterprise technology adoption. What was once a centralized top-down process where the IT department had sole control over what technology was used in the enterprise, we're now far more likely to see the opposite, a decentralized bottom-up process where individual employees influence what technology is used due to the choices they make as consumers. After all, there are far more consumers than there are enterprise employees. Technology companies tend to pursue success in the general marketplace rather than struggle to find adoption in the enterprise (which becomes far easier once consumers have decided to love you and your products).

It's easy to imagine a future in which your virtual personal assistant is everywhere you are. Before long, Alexa, Siri, Google, and others like them will be woven into the fabric of your home, ready to fulfill your every need whim. Forgot to close the garage door? Want to order your post-marathon double cheeseburger and fries before even crossing the finish line? This isn't as outlandish as it might sound.