Artificial Intelligence is a field of science and engineering primarily focused on developing systems that depict human intelligence. We have seen how virtual assistants like Siri, Alexa, Google Now, and Cortana help us find useful information just by asking them. Artificial Intelligence is not a futuristic technology anymore as it has crept into most of our daily lives. Everything we use like our car, smartphone, video games use artificial intelligence to some extent. Even though there are various artificial intelligence risks involved, it is highly regarded as the future of technology to change our lives for the better. According to a statistic released by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), it is estimated that 50% of the world population is into agriculture for their survival.

This is an example of how digital assistants/bots have started making a difference in consumers' lives. Recently, the Singapore-based communications company UIB put out this case study on its Website of how it had tied-up with the UAE-based telco provider du Telecom to create'Blu', a – UIB UnificationEngine -powered virtual assistant on WhatsApp & Facebook Messenger. Through this UIB UnificationEngine conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform-powered chatbot, customers can contact du 24/7 on WhatsApp with queries which receive instant responses, said Ken Herron Chief Marketing Officer, UIB, on the company Website. What's more, even Facebook sat up & took note of this partnership in an official WhatsApp case study/success story. Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, also known as du, is a telecom operator in the UAE, having about 9 million customers with its mobile, fixed line & broadband services.

Rapid technological evolution only means quick changes and even faster changes in the fashion and entertainment industry. Likewise, either due to necessity or by desire, IT professionals in the 21st century will continue to learn and evolve. As we come close to the last quarter of the year, here are some technology trends that are still being explored and will continue to make an impact in the future. AI-enabled conversational interfaces will soon replace mobile screen interactions, blockchain is gaining a lot of traction across businesses, mixed reality is being explored by enterprises and internet users are all for OTT. As the 2010s come to an end, there are some technological trends that businesses will leverage to unleash the full potential of a digitally-driven world, which will eventually, shape our future – personal and otherwise.

Effective techniques for eliciting user preferences have taken on added importance as recommender systems (RSs) become increasingly interactive and conversational. A common and conceptually appealing Bayesian criterion for selecting queries is expected value of information (EVOI). Unfortunately, it is computationally prohibitive to construct queries with maximum EVOI in RSs with large item spaces. We tackle this issue by introducing a continuous formulation of EVOI as a differentiable network that can be optimized using gradient methods available in modern machine learning (ML) computational frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch). We exploit this to develop a novel, scalable Monte Carlo method for EVOI optimization, which is more scalable for large item spaces than methods requiring explicit enumeration of items.

Financial technology, shortly termed as Fintech, has been on the rise since recent years. At its core, Fintech's main objectives are to help financial institutions, business owners and companies to better manage their financial operations and processes. Fintech incorporates the use of algorithms and software to make the lives of the consumers easy. Fintech has seen a lot of growth in the last decade and one of the latest growth is the use of virtual assistants for mobile banking. Erica is an AI-driven virtual financial assistant at Bank of America.

Black Friday is almost here, and one of the best things about the biggest shopping event of the year is being able to score major sales right from your couch. Your Amazon Echo speaker is an easy, hassle-free way to shop Amazon's post-Thanksgiving sales. Why wake up before the sun and stand in long lines when you can shop in your pajamas with Alexa on Black Friday? This year, you can save big on your holiday purchases without having to lift a finger. Just make sure you have an Alexa-enabled speaker at the ready, like our favorite Echo, the Echo third-generation.

Salesforce is hoping to make AI an indispensable part of every business with a range of smart tools and platforms. At its Dreamforce 2019 event in San Francisco this week, the software giant unveiled a host of enterprise-focused services and tools it hopes will spur on AI adoption in companies of all sizes. Salesforce also unveiled its own-brand smart speaker (pictured above) modelled on its Einstein AI mascot, although whether it will go on general sale is still unclear. This growth in business-focused AI is set to be powered by a major expansion to Einstein Voice Assistant, which allows Salesforce users to communicate directly to the platform and get answers instantly. Einstein Voice Assistant is now able to be tailored to any particular industry, allowing for custom-built skills that can cover tasks from checking order history to sentiment tracking.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is competent to have a revolutionary impact on businesses globally. Talking about the information technology sector, it is no longer merely about codifying business logic. Insight is indeed the modern currency, and the pace with which we all can scale that insight is the fundamental of value creation. As per a report by Gartner, AI is going to be one of the top investment preferences for over 30% of CIOs worldwide by 2020. A lot of corporations are yet in their initial phase in comprehending that how AI is scalable enough to transform their businesses.

Facebook Dating will let you add Stories from your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Facebook's online dating service will let you add ephemeral photos and videos from the social network and Instagram, a feature that could help set the company's service apart from Tinder, Hinge and other competitors. The introduction of short-lived content into its dating service illustrates how Facebook continues to bet on online dating, an already crowded market, even as it faces privacy concerns. Facebook Dating, a feature in the main social network, is currently available in 20 countries including the US, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and Canada. When Facebook introduced its dating service, some users told CNET they thought the feature was too similar to other dating apps.

Artificial intelligence is influencing the future of virtually every industry and every human being. It has acted as the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics, and IoT, and it will continue to act as a technological innovator for the near future. According to tech experts, artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the world. However, those same experts do not agree on what kind of effect that transformation will have on the average person. Some believe that humans will be much better off in the hands of advanced AI systems, while others think it will lead to our inevitable downfall.