Artificial Intelligence Software Is Booming. But Why Now? - The New York Times

Later in the article: "“No one really knows where the value is,” said Marc Benioff, co-founder and chief executive of Salesforce. “I think I know — it’s in helping people do the things that people are good at, and turning more things over to machines.”"

"This is the year artificial intelligence came into its own for mainstream businesses, at least as a marketing feature.

On Sunday, Salesforce.com, which sells online software for sales and marketing, announced it would be adding A.I. to its products. Its system, called Einstein, promises to provide insights into what sales leads to follow and what products to make next.

Salesforce chose this date to pre-empt Oracle, the world’s largest business software company, which on Sunday evening began its annual customer event in San Francisco. High on Oracle’s list of new features: real-time analysis of enormous amounts of data. Oracle calls its product Oracle A.I."

Artificial Intelligence Software Is Booming. But Why Now? - The New York Times