Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Picnic--a Seattle startup, --announced this past week that it has created an assembly platform that can make 300, 12-inch pizzas per hour (and 180 18-inch pizzas per hour), making this robot a first-of-its-kind. When a pizza is ordered, the order goes into a digital queue, prompting the robot to begin making the pie the moment that the dough is placed in the appropriate spot in the machine. Data is then sent back to Picnic through the internet in order for developers to help the robot to improve upon any errors made. The A.I. driven pizza platform is currently being used at 3 different establishments in Seattle.

A survey last year found that 98 percent of smartphone owners had used their device's artificial intelligence-based virtual personal assistant (VPA). The majority of those surveyed were inhibited about talking to their artificial intelligence (AI)-powered VPAs in public, but that's likely to change as AI becomes more firmly entrenched in everyday life. As AI becomes a part of daily living, brand leaders are realizing the potential the technology has to transform marketing. With AI, marketers can understand customers more completely and connect with them on a deeper, more personal level. This can allow brands to deliver a buying experience that is relevant to the customer.