Larry Ellison, Oracle's cofounder, executive chairman, and chief technology officer, has said Oracle's new autonomous database ranks among "the most important things we've ever done." So how is this autonomous database playing in the real world? Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud Service has been available since March. I talked with five database users at this year's Collaborate 18 about their reaction to the technology and where they see this broader autonomous computing push going: Jim Czuprynski: What Do You Need DBAs For Now? After plying the trade as a database administrator for 20 years, Jim Czuprynski considers himself a DBA's DBA.

SEOUL--People don't want robots just to work for them. They want robots to talk and play with them, too. Look at the recent Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, for an example of this work-and-play dynamic. More than 30 robots from a startup called FutureRobot were on hand at the games to answer visitors' questions in Korean, Chinese, English, or Japanese. With a friendly avatar face and a large touchscreen on a cylindrical body, the robots offered directions to different sporting venues, provided schedules for every event, and more.

Automation has already transformed industries in which complexity and performance demands must meet the challenges of scarcer resources, narrower profit margins, and expanding product volumes. Now the state of the art is beginning to move to autonomous technologies: driverless vehicles, self-tuning databases, adaptive robots, and the like. While automation involves programming a system to perform specific tasks, autonomous systems are programmed to perform automated tasks, accommodate for variation, and self-correct or self-learn with little or no human intervention. Which industries are ahead of the autonomous curve? These five industries stand out.

Cloud database, analytics, application development, middleware, and other platform services have already shown they deliver vast time, quality, and cost improvements compared with traditional IT approaches. But those cloud services are essentially "dumb"--they know very little about their context or intended use. Specialized human skills are still required to put them to work effectively. But a new generation of smart (or autonomous) platform services is redefining this familiar equation. Such services use machine learning to better understand their context and intended use, requiring far less human skill.

"Why doesn't software manage itself?" That's the question his team asked about seven years ago, Oracle president Thomas Kurian told journalists at a recent briefing at the company's headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. In 2018, the answer is now "It does," in the form of Oracle's autonomous cloud services. Earlier this year, Oracle launched the world's first autonomous data warehouse and pledged to add self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing capabilities across its cloud platform services. Now, three more autonomous services have come on line: Oracle Autonomous Analytics Cloud, Oracle Autonomous Integration Cloud, and Oracle Autonomous Visual Builder Cloud.

It's a frustration many sales reps know: You're talking to a new customer about a product, and she tells you she already owns it. Or you've reached a critical point on a deal, and you don't know exactly what to do next. The underlying problem is that most sales teams are still stuck with arcane sales tools. Instead of working as trusted and knowledgeable advisors, they spend time manually extracting data from multiple systems and chasing leads that have little probability of closing. They don't have the tools to find or navigate through valuable customer information that could make them much more effective at selling--and that could make customers much more likely to buy. As more companies embrace digital technology, as well as artificial and adaptive intelligence (AI), a better, more productive day is on the horizon, says Michael Richter, product management director for Oracle Sales Cloud.

DALLAS--In just a few short years, artificial intelligence has evolved from technology curiosity to practical business tool, promising to help marketers, customer service agents, finance specialists, and a range of other professionals hone their crafts. Also on the front lines of the AI movement are HR leaders, for whom the technology's self-learning, adaptive algorithms will soon become indispensable in their efforts to identify, recruit, manage, and retain the most talented people. Oracle Group Vice President Gretchen Alarcon tells the crowd at Oracle HCM World how organizations could potentially use AI embedded in Oracle HCM Cloud to evaluate candidates. At Oracle HCM World in Dallas last week, experts in human capital management offered their insights on the power and potential of AI, as well as the apprehension that surrounds its use. During a keynote session at the conference, Oracle Group Vice President Gretchen Alarcon and Oracle Vice President Jack Berkowitz demonstrated how organizations could potentially use AI embedded in Oracle HCM Cloud to evaluate candidates responding to a job ad on Instagram. Such an application would analyze data shared by each applicant--on his or her skills, work history, and interests--and then match those patterns against data on the job requirements, the employer's culture, and how recent hires with similar profiles are faring in their jobs.

Supply chains are hugely important in our world of physical goods. Companies invest a lot of money and effort to continually optimize and improve them, and that's not likely to ever stop. Save 5% on transportation costs? As artificial intelligence begins to reshape our digital world via AI-infused goods, services, and processes, it will require its own supply chain: mind-boggling quantities of data. Mountains of information must be continually gathered, processed, refined, and reassembled to produce the desired intelligence and decision-making.

Most financial teams would like to keep up--and experiment with--emerging finance technologies, from artificial intelligence to blockchain to chatbots. The reality is they can't, because they're too busy applying technical Band-Aids to their old systems so they can complete the next period close on schedule. "You want to get your employees away from working on the equivalent of the finance production line to give them time to become the innovation engine of the business," says Steve Cox, an Oracle group vice president and evangelist for cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise performance management (EPM) products. Steve Cox, an Oracle group vice president, speaks with customers during Oracle Modern Finance Experience. Cox spends his time traveling the world, meeting with C-level business executives to discuss their challenges.

We hear a lot about emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. But it's fair to ask: Will these really change how I do my job every day? The likely answer is yes. To picture how, take a look at three examples shared by Thomas Kurian, Oracle president of product development. Kurian offered these February 12 at Oracle CloudWorld in New York.