It's a scenario movies and sci-fi stories have predicted for years: an intelligent fleet of human-serving AI robots become too smart and take over the world. This common storyline has some people worried it will come to real-world fruition -- thanks to technological developments in artificial intelligence and robotics. For many others, though, applying intelligence to robotics is all about furthering innovation. And innovation there has been. Robotics dates back to 1898, when Nikola Tesla used radio waves to remotely direct the movement of a robot boat in a miniature man-made pond during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden in New York. That experiment led to Tesla becoming the father of robotics.

So declared tech insider Mariya Yao in a recent Forbes column that enumerated the various ways machine learning can (and should) be employed to improve marketing efforts in today's data-glutted world. "In the new economy," Yao added, "a marketing unit without machine learning mastery operates at a serious handicap." As a Technology Review article put it, machine learning (which uses an algorithm to identify and learn from data patterns) helps marketers "radically rethink" their campaigns by anticipating future customer moves and more accurately assessing needs through the scouring of data, the identification of patterns and the creation of "predictive models." Here are 20 examples of how machine learning is revolutionizing marketing. How it's using machine learning in marketing: Combining machine learning with natural language processing, OneSpot aims to increase brand engagement and content consumption via algorithms that automatically analyze a brand's content assets.

"Artificial intelligence is to trading what fire was to the cavemen." That's how one industry player described the impact of a disruptive technology on a staid industry. In other (less creative) words, AI is a game changer for the stock market. While humans remain a big part of the trading equation, AI plays an increasingly significant role. According to a recent study by U.K. research firm Coalition, electronic trades account for almost 45 percent of revenues in cash equities trading.

Artificial intelligence has given the world of banking and the financial industry as a whole a way to meet the demands of customers who want smarter, more convenient, safer ways to access, spend, save and invest their money. We've put together a rundown of how AI is being used in finance and the companies leading the way. A recent study found 77% of consumers preferred paying with a debit or credit card compared to only 12% who favored cash. But easier payment options isn't the only reason the availability of credit is important to consumers. Having good credit aids in receiving favorable financing options, landing jobs and renting an apartment, to name a few examples.

The healthcare sector has long been an early adopter of and benefited greatly from technological advances. These days, machine learning (a subset of artificial intelligence) plays a key role in many health-related realms, including the development of new medical procedures, the handling of patient data and records and the treatment of chronic diseases. As computer scientist Sebastian Thrum told the New Yorker in a recent article titled "A.I. Versus M.D., "Just as machines made human muscles a thousand times stronger, machines will make the human brain a thousand times more powerful." Despite warnings from some doctors that things are moving too fast, the rate of progress keeps increasing. And for many, that's as it should be. "AI is the future of healthcare," Fatima Paruk, CMO of Chicago-based Allscripts Analytics, said in 2017. She went on to explain how critical it would be in the ensuing few years and beyond -- in the care management of prevalent chronic diseases; in the leveraging of "patient-centered health data with external influences such as pollution exposure, weather factors and economic factors to generate precision medicine solutions customized to individual characteristics"; in the use of genetic information "within care management and precision medicine to uncover the best possible medical treatment plans." "AI will affect physicians and hospitals, as it will play a key role in clinical decision support, enabling earlier identification of disease, and tailored treatment plans to ensure optimal outcomes," Paruk explained. "It can also be used to demonstrate and educate patients on potential disease pathways and outcomes given different treatment options.

Here's how big data and the Internet of Things work together: a vast network of sensors (IoT) collect a boatload of information (big data) that is then used to improve services and products in various industries, which in turn generate revenue -- hundreds of billions of dollars annually -- from those products and services. And the cash flow is speeding up. "By 2025," according to Thingstream, "it's expected that more than 100 billion operational devices will be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT), generating a total revenue of nearly $10 trillion. This trend looks set to continue for many years of unprecedented growth. For example, the sensor market alone is expected to see an average annual growth rate of 26.91% by 2020."