Say Hello To Your New Digital Colleague

The potential for AI and automation are huge; McKinsey forecasts that the potential economic impact of automating knowledge work could be between $5.2 trillion and $6.7 trillion by 2025. And as we move into the new year, AI will continue to evolve beyond chatbots to something more akin to a digital colleague. While Alexa, Siri and their ilk might seem like modern-day inventions, the concept of the chatbot has actually been around since the 1960s with the creation of ELIZA by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum. Of course, ELIZA was fairly simple by today's standards. And in light of what is possible today, Star Trek's talking computer revealed the stunningly prescience of the series' creator.