This post is part of our Cognitive College series where the industry's brightest minds explore different ways cognitive will revolutionize the way that we work and engage with customers. For decades, when one thought of the future, they thought of intelligent, thinking machines, be it Robby the Robot from Lost in Space, supercar KITT from Knight Rider, or the human-appearing Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. Today, if one mentions the words "artificial intelligence," many will think of IBM's Watson beating its human counterpart in a game of Jeopardy!. But where are the day-to-day thinking machines we assumed were right around the corner and promised to us from our Jetsons-viewing childhood? Unbeknownst to many of us, artificial intelligence (AI) is already all around us and interwoven into the fabric of our human lives – yet we don't recognize its presence because machine intelligence has not yet taken on the human form we had fantasized it would become.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Dealing with customer service sucks – it is the bane of our existence as consumers. Once you've searched the site to find the right number – which feels purposefully hidden to discourage you from calling – you then talk to a robot that completely fails to understand what you're saying (I said BILLING not Bill Clinton!). And let's not even discuss the hold music … You answer a few questions asked by a real human, only to find out you're speaking to the wrong person, who proceeds to transfer your call to someone else. When you're finally transferred to the right person, you're so frustrated with the entire process that you lose it, demand to speak to a supervisor or threaten to switch to a new provider all together.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Many business-people like you and me probably think of "marketing" as a set of processes that promotes our products and services with a view toward generating revenue and margin. Most consumers (also like you and me, when off-duty) probably think of "marketing" as a blur of information spamming our inboxes, mobile phones and brains. It's an altogether more negative connotation of a concept as ancient as "Adam, can I tempt you with an apple?" With "predictive marketing," businesses can better convert this negative experience into a positive perception of their brands, products and services. Put simply, predictive marketing uses advanced analytics methodologies to understand a customer's past behavioral profile, specifically the unique drivers of the individual's behavior, to predict their future behavior.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Next-generation cognitive computing is redefining how we live and work as more businesses are using all the data available to them to improve performance and customer service, and drive innovation and revenue. Today's business challenges have never been more complex, and the critical insights that can help address these challenges are often buried in an avalanche of data. Previously, these insights were beyond the capabilities of conventional computing solutions – programmable systems based on mathematical principles that harken back to the 1940s. But IBM Watson has changed the game.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Surely, both are struggles, but at least the alarm clock is anticipated. The way we manage our customer experience isn't all that different. Whether launching a test environment, integrating a third-party app into your checkout process, or monitoring a known bug in your mobile application, some online struggle is anticipated. It's the unanticipated struggle, however, that really causes the pain.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Here's what CMOs, CIOs and others need to know to make the most of AI in their marketing initiatives in 2017 and beyond. For years, marketing was considered more art than science. But more recently, as marketing automation software has proliferated, marketers have had to blend the art of storytelling with the science of data. Then along comes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which promise to help marketers make sense of all that data.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Plenty of food for thought on the future of retail at NRF 2017, so much so that in the face of all the technology on show, Retail Reflections Founder and IBM Futurist, Andrew Busby, poses the fundamental question: Why retail? It seems everywhere we turn, we see the twin forces of consumer expectation and unrelenting pace and influence of technology are having a profound effect upon traditional retail business models. In the last 100 years, retail has hardly changed. If Harry Selfridge walked into his eponymous store in London today, he would, I'm sure, recognise the department store he opened in 1909.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. Tides are turning, and cognitive intelligence is becoming increasingly integral to the way we do things. Employing cognitive intelligence in your marketing strategy will become industry standard before you realize it, so let's get started laying the foundation. Before harnessing the power of cognitive intelligence, realize the impact of such a decision. AI and cognitive systems allow us to move data interpretation forward at rapid speed.

Thank you for subscribing to the monthly THINK Marketing newsletter. This post is part of our Cognitive College series where the industry's brightest minds explore different ways cognitive will revolutionize the way that we work and engage with customers. For decades, when one thought of the future, they thought of intelligent, thinking machines, be it Robby the Robot from Lost in Space, supercar KITT from Knight Rider, or the human-appearing Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. Today, if one mentions the words "artificial intelligence," many will think of IBM's Watson beating its human counterpart in a game of Jeopardy!. But where are the day-to-day thinking machines we assumed were right around the corner and promised to us from our Jetsons-viewing childhood?

Shogazer, one of many brainchildren to emerge out of high-tech British creative agency Happy Finish's global studios, has been dubbed the "shazam of shoes" after a test run by various news outlets. Powered by artificial intelligence, the app is capable of identifying kicks and gives you the lowdown of who made them, how much they cost, any background information and where you can score a pair. Using a process known as "transfer learning" – a subsection of machine learning which focuses on storing specific knowledge to be tapped for solving other objectives – shoegazer doesn't just display information on specific shoes, but can actually show you what you would look like wearing them with an in-store link to an interactive mirror. For shoe brands, the app is a good indication of where AI can fit within a marketing creative. Since shoes often leave a subcultural footprint, offering further context for consumers to sift through increases their willingness to dive in and buy into the trend of interactivity within advertising.