In the last decade, the arrival of AI and automation in the workplace hasn't always been a positive story Despite the benefits these technologies brought to businesses – and to workers themselves – the fear of job losses and lack of education around automation has marred the impact of these new innovations in the working world. In 2020, that will all change. A new model of partnership between humans and machines is emerging, focused on the value automation and humans working together can bring: augmented intelligence. In fact, Gartner believes that this will create up to $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally by 2021. Businesses who don't take advantage of AI while keeping employee satisfaction front-of-mind are likely to fall far behind in the global race for productivity and business value in uncertain economic times.

Despite the benefits these technologies brought to businesses – and to workers themselves – the fear of job losses and lack of education around automation has marred the impact of these new innovations in the working world. In 2020, that will all change. A new model of partnership between humans and machines is emerging, focused on the value automation and humans working together can bring: augmented intelligence. In fact, Gartner believes that this will create up to $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally by 2021. Businesses who don't take advantage of AI while keeping employee satisfaction front-of-mind are likely to fall far behind in the global race for productivity and business value in uncertain economic times.

Outside Germany, one of BMW's key research organizations for business and manufacturing technology is the IT Innovation and Research Center. With bases both in Silicon Valley, as well as Greenville, South Carolina, the IT center carries out research for systems and tools across the enterprise, including financial services, sales and marketing, engineering, quality, HR, production and logistics. It is part of the carmaker's central BMW Group IT department led from Munich, which coordinates the company's enterprise and manufacturing IT backbone. Similar to other laboratory locations across BMW, the IT center operates to a large extent in research mode. It has a strong connection, for example, to Clemson University, with whom it shares a campus at the International Center for Automotive Research, working closely with engineering and software professors and students.

Influencer marketing is arguably the most sought after form of marketing that exists today. If you're a brand marketer who is looking to quickly spread a message about your brand and start a viral conversation, there is no better way to do it than through influencer marketing. Though this form of social marketing is relatively new, the way that it's been done, until recently, has been highly inefficient. AI, or cognitive computing, has a crucial role to play here. When influencer marketing burst onto the scene a few years back, it caught the attention of talent agencies, as well as upstart influencer agencies, that looked to wrangle up the most impressive stable of influencer talent that they could.