Companies worldwide will spend $3.5 trillion on IT in 2017, market research firm Gartner predicts. Above all else, companies are expected to increase their spending on software and services (as opposed to hardware), as they all rush to buy their tech via the cloud computing model, where tech is hosted in the vendor's data center and delivered as a service over the internet. Software spending is projected to be up 6 percent in 2016, and to grow another 7.2 percent in 2017 to a total of $357 billion. Meanwhile, companies will spend $943 billion on IT services, up nearly 5% over 2016 spending levels. All this means that there are billions of dollars at stake for the rising tech trends, things that emerged within that last few years are ready to take off and become mainstream next year.

Entering the hardware business is nothing unusual for an Internet giant like Google. But in launching its Pixel phone last week, Google GOOG is setting itself up to compete with its own direct customers. Unlike its previous Nexus smartphones, where most manufacturing and marketing is carried out by third parties--including Huawei, LG, and ASUS--the Pixel phone is completely Google's own creation. From design to development to branding to marketing, Google is behind it all. But what's peculiar is its determined pursuit in this less-profitable, asset-intensive side of business. Several studies, business academics, and consultants have shown the limits of asset builders, or companies that accumulate physical assets in order to market and distribute physical products.

Jason Mars is an African-American professor of computer science who also runs a tech start-up. When his company's artificially intelligent smartphone app talks, he said, it sounds "like a helpful, young Caucasian female." "There's a kind of pressure to conform to the prejudices of the world" when you are trying to make a consumer hit, he said. "It would be interesting to have a black guy talk, but we don't want to create friction, either. First we need to sell products." Mr. Mars's start-up is part of a growing high-tech field called conversational computing.

S. Somasegar is a venture partner at Madrona Venture Group and the former head of Microsoft's Developer Division. More posts by this contributor: Escaping the trough of disillusionment for virtual and augmented reality The intelligent app ecosystem (is more than just bots!) How to join the network Daniel Li is an investor with Madrona Venture Group. More posts by this contributor: The new paradigm for human-bot communication The intelligent app ecosystem (is more than just bots!) How to join the network You can hardly talk to a technology executive or developer today without talking about artificial intelligence, machine learning or bots. While everyone agrees on the importance of machine learning to their company and industry, few companies have adequate expertise to do what they wanted the technology to do. Here are some insights into what we can expect in the coming years around ML and AI.

One of the major announcements to come out of Microsoft's Build 2016 developer conference today was the bet the company is making on bots. Microsoft believes that bots are the new apps. Yesterday, they invited developers to build bots for Cortana, the company's virtual assistant. Cortana, for you non-gamers, is a virtual persona character from Microsoft's blockbuster first-person shooter Halo franchise. Microsoft is betting on the notion of "conversational computing," which is why the company is putting its voice recognizing virtual assistant front and center.

The use of recommender systems has exploded over the last decade, making personalized recommendations ubiquitous online. Most of the major companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo!, eBay, Pandora, Spotify, and many others use recommender systems (RS) within their services. These systems are used to recommend a whole range of items, including consumer products, movies, songs, friends, news articles, restaurants and various others. Recommender systems constitute a mission-critical technology in several companies. For example, Netflix reports that at least 75% of its downloads and rentals come from their RS, thus making it of strategic importance to the company.a

It has revealed some Stranger Things tie-ins for Halloween, including a sticker pack and an AI-assisted scavenger hunt. If you're in New York City today (October 28th) and want to participate, you just ask Google Assistant "Where is Barb," a reference to the character who just kind of ... disappeared from the show. You can also download a Stranger Things sticker pack with artwork inspired by the show (above). As a reminder, it's a messaging service with a built-in conversational "Assistant" bot that can give you information whether you're chatting with it directly or in a conversation with pals.

Amazon Echo ships for $179.99, and is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa voice service to offer you a wide range of activities and services. Play music Provide information, news, sports scores, weather and more -- instantly. Manage everyday tasks more easily Listen to a book or article Access and control devices related to automation hubs, such as Wink, Insteon, and SmartThings. Each has seven microphones and a beam-forming tech so it can hear you from across the room, even while playing music.

Stock market cheats, A.I. will soon be looking for you. The sheer volume of transactions conducted in financial markets renders market surveillance by regulatory groups difficult, but machine learning and artificial intelligence tools will soon be employed to ferret out cheaters, according to Reuters. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is developing A.I. that it will start testing in 2017 along with its existing surveillance and detection mechanisms. NASDAQ and the London Stock Exchange Group intend to start using artificial intelligence to spot trade irregularities and violation patterns this year. Related: Future AI assistants like Siri could be trained by Joey from'Friends' Reuters reports that financial firms already use artificial intelligence for picking stocks and for monitoring their own firms' compliance.

If pop culture is to be believed, society is quickly heading toward a highly automated future ruled by artificial intelligence. Take Iron Man's trusty sidekick, J.A.R.V.I.S. Within the Marvel franchise, the artificial intelligence system is able to think, act, and feel like a human. The supporting character is even sarcastic and witty -- both trademark human characteristics. In some ways, J.A.R.V.I.S. seems like a better human than most humans. With the release of AI technologies like IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein, in addition to the recent buzz about the "Partnership on AI," which has brought together some of the world's biggest tech companies to advance research in the sector, it might seem like that fantasy is quickly turning into reality.