Early adopters of IoT technology can be both demanding and forgiving around smart home technologies. Those consumers are eager and able to figure out customized solutions and are empowered to make those things work for them, according to a new study. The study comprised interviews of 100 adults who are early adopters and prospects of IoT technologies, conducted by Magid for the trade group CTAM (Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing).

The hotel room of the future is in the works. Marriott has teamed with Samsung and Legrand to create the next generation smart hotel room. The idea is to leverage mobile and voice technologies to personalize a hotel stay. At Marriott's IoT Guestroom Lab, a person could ask a virtual assistant for a wakeup call at a certain time, use a full-length mirror for a yoga routine, start a shower at the desired temperature pre-stored in a customer's profile and request various housekeeping services, all via voice, according to Marriott.

The networked pill is here. The FDA just approved the first U.S. drug with a digital ingestion tracking system. The digital pill, called Abilify MyCite, has a sensor inside that records that the medication was taken.

Now that various forms of artificial intelligence are getting a workout in real-life markets, data is emerging highlighting some of the ups and downs. Early adopters of AI report strong opportunities, according to one view, while another study points to the need for changes in current processes. The majority (76%) of executives in 'cognitive aware' companies expect AI to transform their organization while most (69%) anticipate minimal or no job losses.

More companies are expected to deploy various forms of artificial intelligence next year and it looks like many customers aren't going to be all that happy about it. As companies optimize their customer service approaches, chatbots will increasingly become alternatives to email. And as they look to reduce costs and headcount in contact centers, more businesses will push customers to digital and chatbots, according to a new 2018 AI forecast by Forrester. The bad news is that the transition to AI will be somewhat bumpy, which will have a negative impact of customer satisfaction, according to the Forrester forecast.

The growth of digital voice assistants is going to be explosive and now a mass of new advertising is projected to follow those devices. Smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home will be installed in more than 70 million U.S. households within five years, according to a new forecast. The majority (55%) of homes will have at least one device installed by then, based on the forecast by Juniper Research.

New connected technologies are continuing to cause serious concerns around privacy and security. The two are really separate issues, as we continually document here. For example, consumers have varying degrees of trust, based on who is providing the service, as I wrote about here earlier this week.

Consumers are concerned about someone accessing their personal information so much so that they will take their business elsewhere if they don't think a company is properly handling their data. The bad news for marketers is that on the types of businesses that consumers trust the most, marketing and advertising is dead last, according to a new study. The study comprised a survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by conducted by PwC and BAV Group.

Despite all the technological advancements, many consumers may not yet be ready to embrace shopping innovations and may need further education about some of their benefits. When faced with the prospects of chatbots, virtual reality and robots, many people are not totally on board. For example, the majority (68%) of consumers have never used a retail chatbot and almost a quarter (23%) don't even know what chatbots are, according to a new survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by IFTTT (If This Then That).

The idea of a connected future scares some people more than others. The more tech savvy people are, the more optimistic they are, and the less savvy they are, the more pessimistic they are. These are among the findings in a global study comprising an online survey of 190,000 people conducted by Mozilla. Of the survey respondents, more than half (52%) consider themselves to be tech savvy, with 11% of those being extremely tech savvy.