The term brings to mind robots, time-travel, science fiction, and other descriptions only fit for the far-reaching future. However, marketing experts are seeing that the future is now. Artificial intelligence (AI) marketing is playing, and will continue to play, a much more significant role in the way brands market to their customers. By 2017, AI marketing is projected to be the dominant force in the marketing industry. Using this technology will allow marketers to manage campaigns and know audiences through a more data-driven and more uniquely personal level than ever before.

On November 6 2014, Amazon announced Echo, a smart speaker featuring a voice-controlled assistant service called Alexa. The company didn't exactly go out of its way to whip up excitement for these newcomers. In sharp contrast to the rollout of its ill-fated Fire Phone--which kicked off with a press-conference extravaganza starring Jeff Bezos--it simply disclosed that Echo existed and would be sold, at first, on an invitation-only basis to Prime members. But Echo spoke for itself--and not just literally. People quickly saw that the pint-size cylinder was a genuinely new kind of consumer-electronics device.

The Amazon Echo challenger Google Home is now available, and the teardown kings at iFixit wasted no time in ripping one apart. What they found inside wasn't all that exciting, but iFixit did discover that Google Home is a close cousin of the 2015 Chromecast owing to the similarity of components on both motherboards. Google Home has a Texas Instruments TAS5720 audio amplifier, for example, which the Chromecast doesn't need. However, both devices are rocking the same dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 media processor, and the the same kind of Toshiba NAND flash for internal storage--the Chromecast has 2GB onboard, while Google Home has 256MB. The two devices are also rocking the same Marvell Avastar wireless connectivity module for WLAN, Bluetooth, and NFC, and similar SDRAM from Samsung.

See those parts meticulously laid out in the image above? That's what a Google Home looks like after it's been torn down by iFixit. The team known for dismantling the hottest gadgets has opened up Mountain View's Echo competitor to confirm that it has two microphones. Echo has seven, but Google says Home has the capability to differentiate voice patterns from background noise despite having fewer mics. Before the team got to the motherboard, though, they had to deal with some super sticky adhesive that protects half of an array of capacitors in charge of detecting your fingers on the device.

Samsung is developing a new digital assistant for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. According to The Wall Street Journal, the South Korean firm's prototypes include a dedicated button to easily summon the AI-based helper. Following last month's acquisition of artificial intelligence company Viv Labs (co-founded by the creators of Apple's Siri), Samsung is expected to integrate its new conversational user interface into future Galaxy smartphones. "Samsung is excited to begin integrating initial AI capabilities into its future products and we look forward to sharing further details at a later date," a Samsung spokeswoman told PCMag. The software maker declined to share any further details about the forthcoming technology.

In the past 5 years, technology has revolutionized how marketers interact with their customers. Now, you've got access to advanced software and customer data for more relevant, targeted and engaging marketing. No wonder that 50 to 65% of executives expect to spend more on marketing technology in the coming year. But, what if I told you that we're only at the beginning? In the next 5 years, marketing is going to make a huge pivot- probably almost unrecognizable from its current form. You probably won't perform search engine optimization. Instead, you'll create an exotic virtual experience for your customers. A great example is artificial intelligence-powered voice assistants on your smartphones, for performing simple tasks. Sure, they lack context and aren't functional for complex tasks. But, we'll get there soon. To give you an overview, here are the 5 emerging technologies that Forrester expects to change the world, in the next 5 years. We already have some info on how these technologies are going to affect the customer-business relationship.

However, a recent Wall Street Journal report claims that Samsung delayed development of the S8 by weeks to help identify the Galaxy Note 7's battery fire problem, potentially pushing back the unveiling beyond the usual February/March window. It's unusual for Samsung to explicitly discuss future smartphones months in advance. At best, it makes component announcements that are not-so-subtle hints as to the direction of its hardware. However, it's not hard to see why Samsung would want to build buzz so early. The Note 7's premature exit didn't help Samsung's reputation or its balance sheet -- the company both wants to move past the fiasco and reassure phone buyers that it's worth sticking around.

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to equip its next Galaxy S smartphones with a Siri-like digital assistant, seeking to make a comeback after the global debacle that precipitated the death of its flawed Note 7 lineup. Samsung, which last month acquired U.S.-based artificial-intelligence software company Viv Labs Inc., said the Galaxy S8 slated for next year will come with AI-enabled features "significantly differentiated" from those in the market, such as Apple Inc.'s Siri or Google. Those services now offer up potentially useful information from the weather to flight times based on user activity. What to eat, drink, wear and drive – in real life and your dreams. The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead.

UK privacy watchdog says Facebook agrees to suspend using WhatsApp users' data BRUSSELS Britain's privacy watchdog said on Monday that Facebook has agreed to suspend using data from UK users of its WhatsApp messaging app for advertisements or product-improvement purposes after the watchdog said consumers weren't properly protected.

Vyacheslav is a PhD candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research uses social psychology and machine learning to understand networks of people and networks of ideas. Imagine a typical day in 2020: Your personal AI assistant wakes you up with a friendly greeting before preparing your favorite breakfast. During your morning workout, it plays new songs that perfectly match your musical tastes. For your driverless commute to work, it has pre-selected a few articles based on the duration of your commute and what you've read in the past.