When creating a new AI-based app, there are many generic problems that are already being solved by other companies, for example face and gesture detection. Unless this is the main business and focus of the company, they will prefer to look for an out-of-the-box AI-as-a-service solution which will save them time, expertise and money. This type of solutions are called AI platforms and give their users many out-of-the-box services, such as computer vision (feature/face and gesture detection), natural language processing (NLP), speech to text, and translations between different language. See also: Artificial intelligence: a force for good or bad? Many companies including Google and Amazon sell this kind of AI services.

Siri had a good run, but its time in the spotlight is over. Alexa has arrived, and it's way smarter than Siri. Alexa, of course, is the voice-activated "smart" assistant lurking inside the Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Dot and Amazon Tap products. If you own one of these gadgets, you probably know the basics by now--you can ask Alexa for today's weather forecast, a daily news briefing, an oven timer or a favorite playlist. But as the Echo family of products has grown, so has the ecosystem that surrounds it.

The term'Artificial Intelligence' was originally coined in the 1950s by the computer scientist John McCarthy. Human-style intelligence, is the desire for people to create human-like consciousness in a machine, enabling it to apply common sense, work out varied problems and even have emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as'general' or'strong' AI, and Task-orientated intelligence, is the ability to do a limited range of tasks very well, such as the ability to drive a car, answer questions or to make health diagnoses, referred to as'narrow' or'weak' AI. Human-style intelligence, is the desire for people to create human-like consciousness in a machine, enabling it to apply common sense, work out varied problems and even have emotional intelligence, sometimes referred to as'general' or'strong' AI, and Task-orientated intelligence, is the ability to do a limited range of tasks very well, such as the ability to drive a car, answer questions or to make health diagnoses, referred to as'narrow' or'weak' AI. Today, the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) is ramping up, especially as big tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft attempt to commercialize its use. Digital Ad Agencies are also starting to figure out how they can leverage Artificial Intelligence techniques to make their clients' marketing and advertising efforts more effective. So far in 2016, Artificial Intelligence technology has grabbed headlines as the focus of Apple's first acquisition--in the form of Emotient Inc--and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has resolved to build an AI assistant to run his home and help him at work. Google has also gone down in the history books after its DeepMind team developed an AI program capable of defeating human world champions of complex Chinese board game Go. It's an achievement reminiscent of IBM's milestone moment when its cognitive system IBM's Watson thrashed human contestants in the U.S. game show Jeopardy in 2011. Watson was custom-built to process natural language and reason its way through information.

New types of artificial intelligence (AI) will be one of the major themes to watch for at the 2017 CES. AI has been a growing story at the show for the past few years, but at CES 2017 it will be more dramatic and pervasive than ever before. In fact, AI could very well be "The Story of the Show." Expect AI themes focused on experiences powered by AI, though not necessarily visible to the consumer. This is about the convergence of AI capabilities, such as machine learning, natural language processing, and analytics, that spawn more fidelity and more personalized responses.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an important and evolving concept that is having significant impact within the Customer Experience industry -- and it's a topic that is being talked about on a seemingly daily basis at this point. But is AI really ready for primetime in customer care? I spoke with Michael Johnston, Lead Inventive Scientist at Interactions, about frequently asked questions about AI and Machine Learning as they apply to customer care. Artificial Intelligence refers to the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior. Put another way, AI technologies are algorithms that attempt to mimic things that humans do.

With the adoption of Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, the Internet of Things (IoT) is already part of our home lives. Many of us also use a smart thermostat to monitor the temperature of our living rooms, and maybe even a smart doorbell to keep an eye on the front porch. What technologies do you think are likely to change the way people do business? I definitely believe embedding communications via WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) will be the next big thing for businesses, especially since it directly affects our rate of communication and in turn our rate of efficiency. Anything that will make life easier will affect our productivity and is going to be here to stay.

It was a pretty terrible year for smartwatches not called Apple Watch. With the delay of Android Wear 2.0 until next year, most smartwatch makers decided to take a break. But while smartwatch mania might have cooled off for now, it looks like the watches are far from dead. They could become a hot thing again if Google has its way. Jeff Chang, Android Wear's product manager, says Google will release two smartwatches running Android 2.0 within the first quarter of 2017, reports The Verge.

There has been no shortage of promises recently about how deeply the application of machine-driven artificial intelligence is expected to change our society in the next decade. Microsoft announced its ambition to conquer cancer using natural language processing to analyze research papers in close to real time. Google--now a self-proclaimed AI-first company--will make computers sound just like humans by applying machine learning to a vast corpus of human voice samples. Facebook is using AI to analyze satellite footage to locate all human life and fulfill its promise to bring the internet to the world's entire population. And the list goes on.

Over the past year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took on a new project: building a home artificial intelligence (AI) system. His AI assistant, Jarvis, who makes toast for his wife Priscilla and plays music for his daughter Max, is voiced by none other than actor and beekeeper Morgan Freeman. Zuckerberg's goal for 2016 was to create an AI system "to run my home and help me with my work." His project seems to have been quite a success: Jarvis responds to the Zuckerberg family's voice commands to perform actions like switching off lights, informing them of the day's schedule, and even entertaining baby Max with Mandarin lessons while her parents wake up. Zuckerberg captured the potential of AI in a Facebook note on the project: "AI is closer to being able to do more powerful things than most people expect – driving cars, curing diseases, discovering planets…" Zuckerberg asked the Internet who should voice his home AI, in a Facebook post, of course.

By all accounts, 2016 has been an extraordinary year for Silicon Valley. Not only have the technology behemoths mustered a growing influence on Capitol Hill, their sheer market capitalization also testifies to one undeniable fact: They are the ones who change the world. The tech industry's missions are unapologetic and filled with passion. Their corporate myths are often wrapped up in their early days as startups. That some awkward twenty-year-old could turn their social ineptness into their biggest advantage and build a global enterprise from their garage is the highest expression of the American dream.