This heightened interest in AI is also reflected in the sheer volume of popular fiction works such as Wetsworld, HumansandEx Machina, which deal with the moral dilemmas of autonomous robots and thinking machines. Yes as much as we're fascinated by these (as yet) fictional scenarios, many still struggle to grasp exactly how this technology will – and in many cases already does – affect our everyday lives. For businesses this has become an imperative, however, and we have seen the focus of Big Data become much more commercially-oriented, centring on managing, measuring and monetizing so-called information assets. To secure an advantage in this data-driven landscape, organisations must develop real world solutions and applications with big data analytics that impact their bottom line. The CRM industry, for instance, has taken to artificial intelligence in a big way over the past year, with companies such as Salesforce, Oracle and Base developing tools to drive sales interactions through built-in intelligence. Personalization is one way in which that translates into tangible commercial impact, as it enables companies to scale their services without incurring prohibitive costs or compromising quality.