In its first year of operations, Coca-Cola sold only around 25 bottles of Coke. Today, the company sells approximately 1.9 billion servings of its drinks across over 200 countries. In fact, despite sharing a smaller share of the market, its competitor PepsiCo is still one of the largest companies worldwide. What may not be common knowledge is that both the rivals– Coca-Cola and PepsiCo employ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to stay at the top of their game. Today, we take a peek into how these beverage companies are employing technologies to remain competitive. According to Greg Chambers, Global Director of Digital Innovation at Coca-Cola, "AI is the foundation for everything" that the Coca-Cola Company does.

The idea of using Artificial Intelligence to understand consumer behavior has been around for a while now. From speculating its accuracy to debating its methods, researchers have always had a keen interest in discussing AI's future in consumer research. Emotion AI is the most noticeable development in this regard. Emotion AI is the sub-set of Artificial Intelligence that tries to understand human expressions, both verbal and non-verbal. Also known as Affective Computing, Emotion AI is the science of recognizing, interpreting, processing, and simulating human expressions. Affective Computing was first coined in 1995 by Rosalind Picard's paper of the same name, published by the MIT Press1.

Parks Associates today announced new research showing that 40% of smart light bulb owners use Amazon Echo or Google Home to control their devices. The international research firm will examine how voice control improves the smart home experience and can drive consumer adoption and usage at the 12th-annual CONNECTIONS Summit: IoT and the Smart Home, taking place January 9, 2018, at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. "U.S. consumers bought an estimated 14 million voice-controlled smart speakers with personal assistants in 2016," said Dina Abdelrazik, Research Analyst, Parks Associates. "Voice interfaces supported by personal assistants--like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana--seek to connect all the moving parts of a connected lifestyle and are simplifying the user experience. In every vertical, whether it be connected entertainment or the connected car, voice has the ability to unify devices to provide a coherent experience and drive greater adoption of IoT technologies. Simplicity, improved user engagement, and personalization will all lead to a stickier consumer."

Sign up for our newsletter to not miss out on tomorrow's game-changers for your industry. "So you too have a sweet spot for awkward ex-Templars?" It's my sister asking me about the rather cute non-player character (NPC) in the computer game Dragon Age Inquisition – a digital and fictional character I am trying to start a romance with. OK, I can hear your jaws dropping. Yes, the game was released end of 2014, and yes, I am playing it now, long after everyone else.