By taking a step back and applying a joined-up, strategic approach to implementing AI-enhanced technologies such as intelligent automation, leaders can derive clear business benefits, including – but not limited to – improved customer service, increased competitiveness, greater productivity, and a more satisfied workforce. Eric Tyree, head of research and AI at Blue Prism, explained: "Whether it's cutting customer wait times in financial services, enabling a more resilient and agile supply chain, or improving patient care by minimising manual admin work, intelligent automation can be the key driver in achieving strategic corporate initiatives. The emphasis becomes a shift of human capital towards revenue generating or customer-centric activity, which gives way to enhanced capacity, more fulfilling work for staff, and more agility and scalability of resource across the entire organisation. AI is now having a significant impact on businesses by replacing restrictive, error-prone networks and relieving overburdened IT teams tasked with'finding and fixing' problems instead of'empowering and enabling' people and connections. And for schools, a connected classroom can be created to help children overcome learning challenges through supportive software or monitor attendance to proactively keep at-risk students engaged in education."

As a digital manufacturing method, additive manufacturing has already managed to establish itself in a wide variety of industries. Whether in medicine, the automotive sector or the consumer goods industry, there is hardly any sector that does not benefit from the strengths of 3D printing. Among other things, the technology innovates production processes by making components both more flexible and more sustainable. Nevertheless, 3D printing has not yet been able to realize its full potential in terms of productivity. Could artificial intelligence be the key?

Emerging advanced technological solutions today have reached such a peak in growth that they are increasingly leaving deeper imprints on both the professional and personal lives of people around the world. According to CompTIA (via TechRepublic), among the emerging solutions offering the greatest business and financial opportunities in the digital age are artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G networks. And while these technologies could transform the business landscape and how organizations operate on a daily basis, one of the most visible effects they have had so far is how they are (or could) transform the productivity and growth speed of corporations, small or large. One of the bigger players in the business arena today is my industry, AI. McKinsey noted that AI solutions can automate many tasks performed by humans.

Republicans argue that the lower taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals promised in the tax bill currently before Congress will result in new investment in businesses and more jobs. But in the age of artificial intelligence and automation, trickle-down economics won't create employment. What corporations and the US economy at large need most in this emerging era is not more free cash, but a new approach to machine-assisted human productivity and purpose. Olaf J. Groth (@olafgrothsf) is a professor of global strategy, innovation, and digital futures at Hult International Business School, as well as CEO of Cambrian.ai. With Mark Nitzberg he is the co-author of Solomon's Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines, due in 2018.

The legal services industry is hurtling headlong into a revolution in the way that we carry out virtually every aspect of our jobs. The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) – intelligence exhibited by machines that are trained to learn and solve problems – is not just an extension of prior technologies. AI holds the potential to dramatically change the field in a variety of ways, from reducing bias in investigations to challenging what evidence is considered admissible. For corporate legal department teams that are prepared to embrace the power of AI, there is vast potential for increased corporate security, greater productivity in litigation management and improved corporate investigations capabilities. Corporate legal departments, no matter how large or small, can no longer escape the fact that AI capabilities are real.