The topic of retrofitting, i.e., the modernization of machines and systems into the digital age, is also an important trend in terms of sustainability, energy saving and resource optimization that we are also serving. Our solutions for automation and quality assurance are used every day in numerous industries such as the automotive industry, the food industry and for mechanical engineering. From concept design to the integration of the finished system, and of course the subsequent support, we do everything in-house. Our vision is to continue creating innovative turnkey solutions, produce new products that are missing on the market and ensuring the future of quality assurance in the machine vision industry. Roman: "Due to great work experiences with American clients, we decided to enter the US market. Just like in Germany, we want to offer the US market our turn-key inspection solutions and services with the goal to guarantee the highest quality and offer our clients a high ROI with our full-spectrum machine vision systems."

Everything we know about the future of work is being shaped by five trends: globalization, technology, changing demographics, new behaviors, and mobility. For the first time these five trends are coming together to force organizations to change the way they think about how work gets done. Is your organization ready for these five trends and for the future of work? He explores how the world of work is changing and what employees, managers, and organizations need to do to adapt. You can also subscribe to Jacob's newsletter to get weekly content on the future of work To work with Jacob or have him speak at your event visit TheFutureOrganization.com

AI has the potential to empower us all to accomplish more, drive better business outcomes and achieve breakthroughs that redefine what's possible. From changing the transportation landscape to discovering new ways of protecting the planet, from reinventing healthcare to connecting with customers, the opportunities are endless.

At Work-Bench, we host quarterly peer roundtables connecting corporate executives solving some of the largest technology pain-points facing their organization. At our Machine Intelligence Roundtable a few weeks back, it became clear that ML and AI were the most significant initiatives this year and most of the attendees were actively building supporting infrastructure. Priorities included navigating build vs. buy scenarios, hiring data science talent, avoiding vendor lock-in and cloud strategy. So far, investments made in ML and AI are typically aiding in BI reports but some folks in our network are exploring infrastructure to drive a flywheel of value to customers using data they have collected. The teams we've backed at UpLevel Security, Merlon Intelligence, Socure are disrupting entire industries because they've built this infrastructure as well as a moat around high value data.

A KDDI Corp. employee holds a smartphone to demonstrate the company's augmented reality (AR) voice assistant service at the CEATEC Japan 2017 exhibition in Chiba, Japan. Particularly when it comes to customer experience, money talks. When it comes to money -- the CEO decides. So the priorities of the CEO matters -- because what the CEO focuses on grows. And generally there's a lot of pressure on the CEO from the board to make quarterly dividends. With so much board focus on quarterly profits and growth, it's hard for the CEO to truly focus on customer experience -- which involves long-term investments, or being misunderstood by wall street for long periods of time.

For the last few years, our digital presence showed us what an environment where all our actions somehow influence our further actions (or actions of others through algorithms) might look like. This is one of the major trends that keeps accelerating us to a state where we hardly even have to make a decision before executing. Take the on-demand economy (Uber, Postmates, etc.) as an example. Machines already tell us where to go, when to go, how much to pay and even what to eat. Companies like Amazon have started recommending products to buy and Facebook suggests individuals to add as friends.