"These three forces are really turning on its head how we are applying analytics to solve business problems," said Seetharaman, director of the Center for Analytics and Business Insights and W. Patrick McGinnis Professor of Marketing at Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. "There's a lot of exciting research going on in understanding how consumers think and feel," he said. For example, one recent project by some of his colleagues shows that ambient scents in supermarket retail makes a big difference in what customers put in their shopping carts. "If you have the smell of cookies in the air, then consumers buy more healthful foods. You heard that right," Seetharaman said.

For over 300 years, the Alamo City has been a dynamic platform for technological innovation and global commerce. Tech Port SA, offered by Port San Antonio, rounds-up the latest stories chronicling the region's movers and shakers in advanced industries.

Looking to ever expand ways to deliver goods to its customers, Amazon has patented a way to allow its drones to deliver packages without ever having to land. The patent would not only provide a safe distance between the UAVs and the people receiving the packages, but also cut down on noise pollution, BizJournals noted. Bezos, now the world's third-richest man with an estimated fortune of $83.3 billion according to Forbes, first showed off Amazon's drone delivery unit in a Dec. 2013 interview on "60 Minutes." It recently filed patents for a beehive-like structure that would allow drones to pick up and drop off packages.