One of Amazon's most iconic products has turned out to be a major money drain, newly unearthed documents show. The retail giant invested in Alexa voice technology in its relatively cheap Echo speaker products in the hopes people would use it to order more products online. But this is said to have backfired dramatically - with new market research showing customers see the AI voice assistant as a secretary and mostly use it for free apps like setting their alarms and checking the weather. 'We worried we've hired 10,000 people and we've built a smart timer,' a former senior employee told the Wall Street Journal. Sources shared internal documents with the newspaper showing that between 2017 and 2021, Amazon suffered more than 25 billion in losses from its devices business.

From the smallest local business to the largest global players, I believe every organization must embrace the AI revolution, and identify how AI (artificial intelligence) will make the biggest difference to their business. But before you can develop a robust AI strategy – in which you work out how best to use AI to drive business success – you first need to understand what's possible with AI. To put it another way, how are other companies using AI to drive success? Let's briefly look at each area in turn. Thanks to the Internet of Things, a whole host of everyday products are getting smarter.

The coronavirus crisis has significantly altered our everyday lives. Behavioral trends that were already underway, including the use of e-commerce, telemedicine, remote learning, video communication, at-home entertainment or exercise, and food delivery, have seen significant acceleration. Consumer shifts that would have otherwise taken years have been compressed into short weeks. While some of the behaviors will revert to pre-crisis patterns, many will stick with us permanently. For the most part, these rapid changes have been enabled by existing Web and Mobile solutions.

From the smallest local business to the largest global players, I believe every organization must embrace the AI revolution, and identify how AI (artificial intelligence) will make the biggest difference to their business. But before you can develop a robust AI strategy – in which you work out how best to use AI to drive business success – you first need to understand what's possible with AI. To put it another way, how are other companies using AI to drive success? Let's briefly look at each area in turn. Thanks to the Internet of Things, a whole host of everyday products are getting smarter.