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Thoughtworks' XConf conference provides reasons to be optimistic about the potential for software to solve some major challenges.

Lord of the Trees has developed a system using precision drone technology, AI and proprietary seed pods to restore ecosystems. Up to 400,000 seed pods can be planted in 12 hours, improving the chance of success. US billionaire Tim Draper – founder and managing partner of Draper Associates – was an investor in PayPal and also backed Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, Skype and Hotmail. "For ages I had been wanting to invest in a company that's truly committed to planet regeneration, and then I found Lord of the Trees! I was thrilled by their simple technological solution and innovative business model, plus their commitment to meet the growing needs of carbon reduction across the globe," said Draper.

Alzheimer's disease is a terminal neurodegenerative disease that has historically been diagnosed based on observing significant memory loss. There is currently no cure or disease-modifying therapy for this terminal illness, despite hundreds of clinical trials. It is thought these trials may have a high failure rate because the people enrolled are in the latest stages of the disease, likely already suffering a level of brain tissue loss that cannot easily be repaired. Thus, researchers have put their mind to how to detect this disease earlier, while a chance may still exist to slow its progression. Recent research has shown a biological marker associated with the disease, a peptide called amyloid-beta, changes decades before any memory-related issues are apparent.

"Despite huge levels of interest in AI technologies, current implementations remain at quite low levels," said Whit Andrews, research vice-president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "However, there is potential for strong growth as CIOs begin piloting AI programmes through a combination of buy, build and outsource efforts." "Don't fall into the trap of primarily seeking hard outcomes, such as direct financial gains, with AI projects," said Andrews. "In general, it's best to start AI projects with a small scope and aim for'soft' outcomes, such as process improvements, customer satisfaction or financial benchmarking." Big technological advances are often historically associated with a reduction in staff head count. While reducing labour costs is attractive to business executives, it is likely to create resistance from those whose jobs appear to be at risk.

Global consulting firm Accenture notes that stand-alone, AI-powered digital voice assistant devices are being used "for a range of consumer services such as playing music, turning the heat and lights on and off, and providing news, weather and sports scores." That's to be expected, of course - that's what they're for - but in an online survey of 21,000 consumers in 19 countries, Accenture discovered that digital virtual assistants are becoming "the central hub for home activities in Australia." Again, that's the whole point of digital assistants - they're meant to be the hub of your digital home, not just answering questions but helping you control your other connected devices, but naturally, it's always good to see this being confirmed by actual users. In addition, "three quarters (75%) of these owners said they use their smartphones less for entertainment, more than two thirds use them less for online purchasing and more than half for general information searches (71% and 55%, respectively)." David Sovie, global MD of Accenture's High Tech business said: "Digital voice assistant devices are challenging smartphones as the central hub for all activities in the home. "These low-cost devices deliver valuable and practical benefits and are relatively easy to use, and their rapidly growing popularity is one of the most striking trends in the high-tech industry." Accenture tells us its survey shows that "ownership levels of digital voice assistant devices in Australia are projected to increase more than five times this year, reaching 23% by the end of 2018 from 4% in 2017.

The cloud is no longer "the next big thing," with companies now looking at machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to make their products smarter, more efficient, and to release human operators from manual tasks where they can be intelligently automated. AI is becoming more accessible, breaking new ground, permitting new ways of working and increasing productivity. However, Sarah Adam-Gedge, Managing Director of consulting firm Avanade's Australian operations, says organisations need to establish an ethics framework for guiding our journey into an AI-first world. Just as we think about the benefits, we must also consider the impacts these new technologies can have, and how removing human operators from machinery such as weaponry and healthcare can compromise end results. AI introduces uncharted moral and ethical dilemmas and a new scale to risks.

Dr Crystal Valentine, the company's vice-president of technology strategy, told iTWire in an interview that it was still the very early days of seeing machine learning and deep learning being put to work by enterprises outside academia. Dr Valentine has a background in big data research and practice and before joining MapR, she was a professor of computer science at Amherst College. She has authored various academic publications in the areas of algorithms, high-performance computing, and computational biology and holds a patent for Extreme Virtual Memory. As a former consultant at Ab Initio Software, working with Fortune 500 companies to design and implement high-throughput, mission-critical applications and as a tech expert consulting for equity investors focused on technology, Dr Valentine has developed significant business experience in the enterprise computing industry. Dr Crystal Valentine: Machine learning encompasses a number of different algorithms for training computers to solve specific tasks, including tasks that are part of larger artificial intelligence systems.

Aaron Reich, senior director of technology innovation at Avanade, told iTWire in an interview that what was powerful about AI and its cognitive computing capability was that it was more than just direct language translation. "Machines today can understand intent and nuances, making translation much more natural than in the past," he said. "However, it's not just about the tool; it's also about how it is embedded in an organisation's culture." Reich (below) is part of the innovation and incubation team at Avanade, a global professional services company providing IT consulting and services focused on the Microsoft platform. For the past few years he has been responsible for growth of Avanade's Windows Azure business.

"It is the embodiment of human intelligence and there is really nothing more at present than a thin veneer of that – we simply don't have the computing power to build a neural network like the human brain," Nathan Lowe, managing director, ASI Solutions, said in an interview. "AI is something that performs a specific set of tasks in a human-like way. Human intelligence has creativity, innovation, sentience, morals, gut feel, is situation aware, bias, feelings, and has learned from its mistakes. AI like this is not going to happen for a while," he said. Lowe has been with ASI since 1999 and became managing director in May 2015.