AI assistants are poised for major growth in 2018

Artificial intelligence assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant have been a major topic of discussion over the past few months. From the release of the Google Home smart speaker to huge sales of Amazon Echo devices over Christmas, there's been a buzz in the air for months -- and that buzz is still building in 2018. Rumor has it Apple will release the HomePod smart speaker soon. This has prompted a flurry of speculation about how it's too little, too late for the company to jump into the AI-enabled smart speaker sector. Meanwhile, experts point to these assistants as the next big boom in consumer tech and AI.