Marketing scientist Kevin Gray asks Dr. Anna Farzindar of the University of Southern California about chatbots and the ways they are used. Is there a formal definition you prefer? Conversational or dialog agents are designed to communicate with us in human language. These software agents are deployed everywhere around us; when talking to your car, communicating with robots, or using your personal assistant on any device or smartphone, such as Alexa, Cortona, SIRI or Google Assistant. The term "chatbot" is often used in industry for conversational agents that can be integrated through any online messaging application.

The World Economic Forum has forecasted that robots will eliminate 75 million jobs by 2022. However, they also predict they will create 133 million new jobs, a net gain of 58 million. Whatever the future holds, talk about automation is never going to be far away when it comes to work. In the quest for profits and ever-increasing growth, organizations are constantly being challenged to cut costs, which technology can help them do. This is the reality of modern-day Business.

I'm struggling to think of another profession where'things' is a suitable description of a product, service or problem. Everything from a light bulb and a fridge to a car or a plane is now a'thing'. Because we haven't been vague enough already, we throw into the Internet of Things (IoT) quagmire some real esotericism in the form of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to deliver Smart solutions. Is IoT really an entirely new set of technologies? Industry rhetoric suggests a'sophistication of attack', whenever the latest botnet commandeers thousands of'things', but I'm not so sure what is sophisticated about hunting for default creds on a collection of cameras.