Ryan Owen holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina, and has rich experience in financial services, having worked with Liberty Mutual, Sun Life, and other financial firms. Ryan writes and edits AI industry trends and use-cases for Emerj's editorial and client content. Dick and Mac McDonald opened the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940. By the end of the decade, the restaurant added its now-famous French fries. Ray Kroc joined the growing organization in 1954, purchased it in 1961, and served as its CEO into the early 1970s.

Ecommerce is known for its waves of innovation. From the rise of pure-plays to the advent of multi-channel and subscription commerce, we've seen the category disrupted more than once. Now, a handful of innovations are vying to again change how we buy as these technologies move from the emergent to the mainstream. Augmented Reality (AR) got off to a slower-than-expected start but appears to be gaining steam. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly shedding its dystopian baggage to find a home in countless applications.

Out of Home media operators and in-store media owners can now integrate internet of things (IoT) enabled sensors into their displays to deliver contextually relevant messages. For example, a temperature sensor can signal a content management system to prioritize an advertisement for soda on a hot day. Machine learning powers image recognition software that takes this adaptability to the next level. Advertisers have conducted campaigns in which machine learning software identifies the make and model of cars on a highway and subsequently displays ads for applicable vehicles on nearby digital billboards. Other innovators are using machine learning to identify the gender, age, and mood of those viewing digital displays and subsequently tailoring messages based on these factors.

It seems as if all forms of consumer electronics are evolving into multimedia platforms from phones and MP3 players to home digital assistants and smart TVs. Obviously, electronic displays are essential to any multimedia experience. Here are five of the biggest trends in commercial technology currently affecting the display market, according to a report by the Society for Information Display (SID). Getting back to digital assistants for the home and/or office, AI and machine-learning tech is one of the most rapidly growing markets in consumer electronics. Most of the world's biggest tech conglomerates have made forays into this sector, with giants like Amazon and Google leading the way.

A'global startup' which makes electric racing vehicles unveiled plans Friday to sell a fully autonomous electric car in the US market by 2020. The company called Nio, founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li and with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and China, unveiled a prototype of the vehicle called Eve at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas. According to a Nio statement, the car will be'a digital companion, a robot on wheels' equipped with'an artificial intelligence engine with an intuitive human interface, providing verbal and visual connections both within the vehicle and with the outside world.' The new design is more like a living room on wheels than a car. The forward two seats have an'enhanced panoramic view', with digital displays provided on the active glass when needed to support non-autonomous driving EVE has no door pillars, and interior is accessed through a wide forward-sliding door.

BOSTON – An executive from American Apparel at eTail East 2016 detailed how the brand is using an artificial intelligence and Internet of Things solution in which real-world displays interact with shoppers' phones to start a purchase-enabled thread with a chatbot. During the session, The Future Of Retail and the Convergence of Customer Centricity, IoT and Omnichannel, the executive also explained that American Apparel wanted to expand its mobile footprint but without having to immediately make an application, so it partnered with Postmates to introduce a delivery service that saw significant early adoption. The retailer's digital displays are leveraging beacon technology and chatbots to make it easier on customers to instantly purchase and find information about products featured in display ads in an attempt to expand its mobile reach. "I am a firm believe that native apps are being disrupted right now and they are being disruptive by chatbots," said Thoryn Stephens, chief digital officer at American Apparel. "We were actually already on that path before Zuckerberg and Facebook really made that push.