WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Robo-cars are picking up everything its sensors see, hear, and detect. So to corral all this information, Cruise — through a hackathon event — created an open-source data visualization platform called Webviz. Other autonomous vehicle companies offer different aspects of the self-driving process, like Baidu's Apollo open-source autonomous driving platform. Now Cruise is opening up its application for anyone who works with robotics.

Amazon.com Inc is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders.

Amazon is famous for its drive to automate as many parts of its business as possible, whether pricing goods or transporting items in its warehouses. But the company is in a precarious position as it considers replacing jobs that have won it subsidies and public goodwill.

New research from Bossa Nova indicates retailers are in dire need of a solution for severe inventory problems and recognize that automation is the answer.

The big features for Blue include that it is low cost and can perform some of the basic human tasks we might want a robotic assistant of the future to perform for us. Blue can do things like fold laundry or make a cup of coffee thanks to advanced AI and deep reinforcement learning. Despite its advanced skills, the robot remains affordable and safe enough that eventually every AI researcher and home can afford one.

The robots, made by Fellow Robots, use a 3-D scanner to
detect people as they into stores. Shoppers can search for
items by asking the bot what they want or typing items
into a touch screen. The bot can guide them to those
items using smart laser sensors, similar to the technology
used in autonomous vehicles. The LoweBot also scans
shelves using computer vision to send up-to-date
information to store associates, even while it is showing
people around the store. Inventory tracking may seem
mundane and boring, but is incredibly important to a
retailer.

Cutting-edge technology gives a glimpse into the future of how things will get made, and what manufacturers must do to stay relevant.

Automation to lower order assembly costs
Hyper local operation to lower last mile costs

The Albertsons Cos. is embracing robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate and save costs on ecommerce fulfillment.

Application technology company using robotics and artificial intelligence to improve working conditions and productivity.

Ocado's new warehouse has thousands of robots zooming around a grid system to pack groceries. The thousands of robots can process 65,000 orders every week. They communicate on a 4G network to avoid bumping into each other. Is this the future of retail?

Worried about the robot apocalypse? This latest report of global robot density averages says the machines are on the rise worldwide.

Worried about the robot apocalypse? This latest report of global robot density averages says the machines are on the rise worldwide.

Piloting a drone or an unmanned vehicle by only using your gaze sounds like a scene out of a science fiction movie, but now it’s a reality. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, and collaborators developed a deep learning system that uses NVIDIA GPUs to enable a user to control a drone by simply directing their eyes towards where they want to steer.

The last mile is seeing disruption from new business models that address customer demand for ever-faster delivery, as well as new technologies such as drones and autonomous ground vehicles.

Companies benefit from optimizing collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence. Five principles can help them do so: Reimagine business processes; embrace experimentation/employee involvement; actively direct AI strategy; responsibly collect data; and redesign work to incorporate AI and cultivate related employee skills. A survey of 1,075 companies in 12 industries found that the more of these principles companies adopted, the better their AI initiatives performed in terms of speed, cost savings, revenues, or other operational measures.

Companies benefit from optimizing collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence. Five principles can help them do so: Reimagine business processes; embrace experimentation/employee involvement; actively direct AI strategy; responsibly collect data; and redesign work to incorporate AI and cultivate related employee skills. A survey of 1,075 companies in 12 industries found that the more of these principles companies adopted, the better their AI initiatives performed in terms of speed, cost savings, revenues, or other operational measures.

An overview of influencer that inspire me daily when reading the newest trends on digital transformation. Feel free to add your favorite influencer on this list. I personally have no influence on the ranking - a neutral algorithm calculates who has the most impact online. So all fame and blame belongs to the algorithm.

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Workplaces and workflows will change as more people work alongside machines

Additional economic growth, including from business dynamism and rising productivity growth, will also continue to create jobs. Many other new occupations that we cannot currently imagine will also emerge and may account for as much as 10 percent of jobs created by 2030, if history is a guide. Moreover, technology itself has historically been a net job creator. For example, the introduction of the personal computer in the 1970s and 1980s created millions of jobs not just for semiconductor makers, but also for software and app developers of all types, customer-service representatives, and information analysts.

As machines increasingly complement human labor in the workplace, we will all need to adjust to reap the benefits.

When it detects an approaching animal, its eyes light up and it starts to howl, Asahi TV says. Its manufacturers say the robot wolf uses solar-rechargeable batteries and has a range of howl noises so that animal threats don't get used to it.

A lot of the work that goes into making a t-shirt or a pair of jeans has been automated, except for cutting and sewing. Now machines are taking over one of these last surviving manual jobs, which humans have performed for hundreds of years.

The SpotMini extends an arm out of its head and turns a handle and opens the door and then props it open for its (armless) SpotMini friend to walk through.