It's not just consumers that want personalized buying experiences. As smart technology becomes more pervasive in our personal lives, all of us are starting to expect the same type of personalized, frictionless shopping experiences in our business lives, as well. We want proactive answers to our questions. We want to know that businesses understand our unique needs. And that's where AI and machine learning come in.

On one hand, we know AI is the future of business. After all, manpower simply isn't fast enough to keep up with the pace of consumer demand. That said, there's a big difference between knowing AI is the future and actually implementing AI within your business successfully. That latter part--AI adoption--is where many companies are finding themselves stuck. No one said digital transformation would be easy--but you're not alone if you assumed AI adoption would be a cakewalk.

In this special edition of the Futurum Tech Podcast, Daniel Newman takes a look at some of the trends and challenges in the future of work with interviewees Edward Bagden, Associated Director of Flight Operations and Safety at LIFT Academy, and Greg Bowen, CTO and SVP of Digital Acceleration at Dell Digital, the IT organization that supports Dell. In the next decade, there are many exciting ways that AI and other emerging technologies will change the future of work. One of the ways AI will--and actually already is--changing the workplace is as it relates to inclusive talent. Removing bias from the talent recruitment processes and creating a culture of diversity and inclusivity are areas where AI-powered technology can help companies make significant inroads. On that topic, on the podcast today my guests and I took a dive into LIFT Academy, a company that is on the cutting edge of using AI for recruiting and retaining talent for the commercial piloting industry. LIFT's Edward Bagden shared that the company's goal is to remove the socio-economic bias historically associated with gaining piloting skills. Rather than limiting the company's talent pool to those who can afford to fly, they focus first on finding people who would be good, solid team players for their company, and then provide the training they need to be successful. Finding people who have a passion for a job, then training them to do the job makes a lot of sense. Based on an algorithm the company has developed to determine what will make the most successful piloting candidate, the company guarantees a piloting job to every candidate it accepts to its training program. Another way AI is changing the future of work relates to the ability of an organization to empower workers. Dell Digital's Greg Bowen discussed the concept of supporting distributed and remote workers by creating platforms that enable real-time collaboration. The future of work is both employee and values-driven, he says, and AI is part of that shift. In terms of challenges AI faces, there are many things that make tech adoption and rollout a challenge, the most important of which is culture.

Is there more to AI than automation and data processing? And now that some of the more basic functions of AI have matured, we're going to see a sharp increase in the sophistication of AI, as it becomes more and more human. The following is a brief look at where the enterprise is when it comes to AI, and where we're about to start heading. These are the enterprise AI trends making headlines. As I noted above, there are some basic functions of AI that most companies have already adopted, and that we as users can feel confident about when it comes to functionality.

As we continue to move forward in digital transformation, an increasing number of companies are discovering the promise of robotic process automation (RPA). In a nutshell, RPA allows companies to gain efficiencies and (hopefully) save money by automating routine tasks. RPA is what I'd call the low-hanging fruit of artificial intelligence. It's governed by structured input. Its processes are mundane and rule-based.

It's the beginning of September (and no, I don't know how that happened either), and as the summer lull winds to a close and we prepare for a renewed frenzy of activity, it's a good moment to take stock of the year so far. Last month, two different articles were published looking back over some of the key trends we've seen in 2018 with regard to emerging technology and digital transformation, and comparing them to what was predicted. One was a piece by Forbes contributor Daniel Newman of CMO Network, who revisited his predictions for digital transformation in 2018 in light of the past eight months, to see where we are with some of 2018's most potentially transformative technologies. It takes a broadly optimistic view of the technologies that are meant to be shaking up the digital world in 2018, with a few caveats. The other was by The Register's Andrew Orlowski, written in response to the publication of Gartner's annual'Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle', which revealed that a number of the most "hyped" technologies from last year have vanished from this year's chart.

It's a somewhat ironic tail: in the midst of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is in position to take over many functions of people services--the business of human resources. After all, many companies have been automating their job application processes for quite a while. But as the sophistication of AI continues to ramp up, AI will be playing an even more significant role in recruitment and talent acquisition. This is the future of AI and HR. If you're anything like most people, you have your doubts at how well a machine could select a human for a certain position.

Companies are aware of the importance of the customer experience. When a customer is having a bad experience with a product or service they want help immediately, and they use every channel possible to get it. Companies are faced with the daunting task of having to take calls, answer chats and emails and monitor social media conversations and mentions. It's a dizzying array of options for customer contact, and ignoring any one channel could cost brands loyal customers. Thankfully, most companies have discovered how the power of artificial intelligence can help.

The future of work is up for debate between tech giants and CEOs alike. And when it comes to artificial intelligence, the fog has yet to lift. Is it due to the uncertainty around AI and its ever-growing presence in the tech industry? Or, is it due to the looming changes that the use of AI could create? Whatever the case, no one can seem to agree.

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation on our job market and economy have been debated loudly for the last few years. Elon Musk, the genius founder of Tesla and SpaceX, recently stated governments will soon need to start paying a universal basic income (UBI) to compensate for the fact that technology will make most human jobs irrelevant. Other leading authorities may disagree. An Accenture study found that AI will actually create entirely new categories of human jobs, and McKinsey estimates that less than 5 percent of jobs are candidates for full automation. So, what's the real deal when it comes to AI and automation?