Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan today said Artificial Intelligence has reached the era of consumerisation and opined that it might be disruptive in the coming years. "What we are witnessing right now is the consumerisation of AI. Consumerisation has two aspects, one is cost and second is access. And I believe that we are at the beginning of the consumerisation of AI," he said. Gopalakrishnan, who is chairman of CII India Innovation Summit, opined that AI may be disruptive in the coming years.

Softbank's Pepper brings the march of the robots closer to reality with a big step forward. But it also highlights the long road ahead. The popular robot – Softbank sold than 7000 units in 7 months in Japan during 2015 – is arguably the world's leading example of the consumerisation of robotics in action today and should be on any business and IT leader's list of emerging tech to evaluate. Even if Pepper isn't the most advanced in terms of technology, and it isn't by a long stretch, it is supported by the most progressive, ecosystem-based business model. And this latter factor is probably more important to Pepper's future success.

In recent years, we've become used to the fact that retail PCs are cheaper, more functional, lighter and better looking than the ones most organisations provide for work. Many of us find it more productive to work at home or in a coffee shop, or anywhere there is Wi-Fi. Consumer email, instant messaging, file sharing and other free services are often demonstrably more capable and easier to use than the services that most large organisations provide. As long ago as April 2004, the Leading Edge Forum (LEF) coined the term consumerisation, and published a report on The Consumerization of Information Technology. The paper was our response to the intriguing developments popping up all around us.