What are the digital business trends that will influence your business in 2017? Digitally transformed businesses will investigate artificial intelligence, look at Bitcoin’s blockchain, are likely to embrace chat to streamline customer service, and will put what makes sense to the customer — rather than the business — at the centre of services design. Artificial intelligence The year 2016 was the year when everyone explored artificial intelligence (AI), but 2017 will be the year that local companies put budget into, and start using basic AI. For those who have not fallen down the AI rabbit hole or seen Westworld, the aim of artificial intelligence is for machines to replicate human intelligence. This means they can sense their environment, and use autonomous, rational "thinking" to do something or to reach a goal. Tech monoliths like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM are investing heavily in this emerging sector. Research firm CB Insights reports that since 2011, nearly 140 compani...

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