Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, has taken the tech world by storm, allowing companies to cut costs, automate a variety of their processes, as well as boost their bottom line. AI-powered chatbots, specifically, are being used by companies big and small as virtual assistants, customer care representatives, marketing executives, and salespeople. There are signs that AI and Machine Learning will transform FinTech.

2018: The Year of AI and Machine Learning for Financial Marketers. “The increasing accessibility of data and the lower cost of advanced analytic capabilities means that making the most of AI and machine learning is going to be a necessity for financial industry marketers in 2018 and beyond. While the full extent of AI and machine learning’s potential is yet to be realized, consumers are already expecting their primary financial institution to know them, understand them and reward them on a highly personalized basis.”

Support Research that the B2B Customer Experience is broken: B2B leaders “flying blind” as companies lose control over customer experience and put growth at risk. “To regain control, B2B leaders will orchestrate their sales ecosystem by seeing partners as an extension of their business and empower them with customer insights, coaching, and support. Only then can they fully tap their connected growth potential.”

CES Roundup – an industry out of touch with the problems it really needs to solve. “I really feel like CES is becoming fairly irrelevant to the actual innovation that matters. It’s no longer a place that leads,” said Ankur Jain, founder of Kairos Society, an organization that helps entrepreneurs solve societal problems.

“It used to be a place where you would see an Alexa [Amazon’s virtual assistant] being announced and everything would follow throughout the year. Now all of the products follow and are not meeting any unmet needs, they are just ‘nice-to-haves’.” What I read and saw through social feeds was mostly partying and music acts. Sad.

And, from Pymnts: Yes, the robots are coming.

European banks brace for ‘slow burn’ payments revolution. This Saturday, new European rules on online payments and banking went into effect. “I think the days of when you have a big bank and it provides all the touch points to that financial services organization and provides you with all the product sets, and keeps you captive, are gone,” said Anne Boden, CEO of upstart Starling Bank. “PSD2 could change banking forever.”

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