Software giant Microsoft has continued its diversification drive with the launch of a bunch of clever things loosely grouped into the artificial intelligence silo. While Microsoft had a slight fall from grace during the late 90s and 00s with the rise of more millennial-friendly technologies, its recent surge in the cloud computing market has put the giant firmly back in the top division. Cloud computing has positioned the vendor as a must-have for numerous CIOs around the world, and now the team are looking towards one of the next major technology booms to fuel further growth; artificial intelligence. There are a number of players throughout the industry who are making moves in the potentially lucrative AI industry, though Microsoft looks to be one which has the strongest footing. True, Google's Deepmind and IBM's Watson have arguably made more progress in the AI arena, though Microsoft's current penetration into the world of enterprise technology gives it a notable advantage, even if it is playing catch-up on the AI side of things.

Microsoft is partnering with audio company Harman Kardon to launch a speaker with its Cortana personal assistant built in. Described as "a voice-activated speaker," a short teaser video shows glimpses of a (rendered) cylindrical design not too dissimilar to Amazon's Echo. It also takes cues from Google Home, with a display atop fashioned after Cortana's familiar blue circle that shows when the assistant is thinking. Unfortunately, the teaser video is all we have to go on, and that only tells us the device is "coming in 2017." It seems a pretty safe bet that it won't be the only speaker with Cortana built in, though. Microsoft is making a big push into the "internet of things" with the Cortana Devices SDK, hoping to partner with many manufacturers to bring the assistant to various devices and appliances.

After attending this year's IBM World of Watson event in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I was both stunned and overwhelmed by the advancements in artificial intelligence and cognitive. I have written about IBM and Watson several times over the last few years, but this year seems to be it's coming out party. I remember when Watson was a contestant on the TV game show "Jeopardy." It has grown leap years in the last five years. What we think we know about AI mostly comes from the movies, TV and sci-fi, and it has been with us for quite a while.

Having a robot for a boss could afford you many benefits and could even help with your career advancement. Most that work for any Company have someone within this entity that they must answer to. It could be a team leader, supervisor or manager. Then for the executive management level it is usually the company owner itself. This means that most have to rely on human nature to lead them to success in the Company that they work for.This can come with a lot of challenges, but what if that leadership were in the form of robots?

A year ago I wrote that I had seen the future. I had attended the IBM Insights conference in Las Vegas, an entire conference devoted to the Internet of Things, analytics, cognitive marketing and related topics. And if the concept of Moore's Law (that technology doubles every year – or every 18 months or two years, depending on what you read) holds true, then a lot has happened since then. While last year's future is now a history lesson, what is currently happening in the World of Watson is moving at warp speed! This past week more than 17,000 people attended IBM's World of Watson, the new name of the conference devoted to cognitive technology.

If you thought Siri was smart, wait until you get a load of Spaun. Created by neuroscientist Chris Eliasmith at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Spaun is "the world's largest simulation of a functioning brain," according to a report from Canada.com. Spaun is able to recognize numbers and memorize lists and patterns and reproduce them on command. This makes Spaun unique among its virtual peers, since other large-scale models of the brain "don't do anything," Eliasmith said. Spaun, which stands for Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network, has 2.5 million simulated neurons organized into subsystems to resemble the prefrontal cortex, basil ganglia, thalamus and other cognitive machinery in the brain.

While Microsoft is preparing for the release of Windows 10 IoT Core for a multitude of devices, the Redmond giant is also quietly pushing for the availability of Cortana in all the devices that the Windows 10 software variant will be supporting. This is based on the information Microsoft officials provided last week at WinHEC 2016 in Shenzhen that has come to light early this week. In a presentation, entitled "Cortana and the Speech Platform," Microsoft officials revealed to OEM partners what the company's big move for its advanced voice assistant is all about. ZDNet has learned that the tech giant is preparing for its PCs and device partners to utilize the "Wake on Voice from Modern Standby" and "Far-field Voice" functionality of Cortana through the Creators Update that is arriving in Spring 2017. The "Wake on Voice from Modern Standby" technology enables Cortana to control devices from their inactive state.

Tonight is your friend's birthday party. You've forgotten to get a gift, and you have to work late. The solution is in the palm of your hand. With your smartphone, you can ask MyKai, a mobile tool that connects to your bank account, how much you can spend. You can then send a quick text message to 1-800 Flowers for a bouquet of flowers. Then, you can tap on your friend's address in Facebook messenger to summon an Uber driver to take you to the party.

At long last, Microsoft has set a public target of bringing consumer devices--that aren't PCs--to market in 2017 with its personal digital assistant, Cortana, inside of them. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a way to challenge Amazon's Alexa-powered Dot and Echo devices, as well as Google's Google Home. Microsoft's New Devices SDK will allow to power a new line of connected-car speakers from Harmon Kardon in 2017, executives said, with presumably more partnerships to come. This follows an earlier announcement that Cortana is coming to Windows 10 IoT, Microsoft's operating system for smart devices. Why this matters: Though Apple, Microsoft, and Google all have prominent artificial-intelligence initiatives, it's been Amazon--and, to a lesser extent, Google--that have designed devices around their technology.

Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant is getting a lot smarter. On Tuesday, the company announced a set of developer tools aimed at bringing it into the internet of things, and adding support for developers to build new functionality for it. The makers of IoT devices like speakers and cars will be able to use a Microsoft software development kit to integrate Cortana into their products. In addition, developers will be able to build custom integrations that add capabilities to Microsoft's virtual assistant. Microsoft is also launching a new service designed to help users simplify the process of scheduling meetings.