Contributed by Bryce Ward Despite constant advancements in artificial intelligence, many people still scoff at the relevance of AI. For consumers, such a view is of little consequence; but for business owners and innovators, neglecting AI could mean being left in the dust by more forward-thinking competitors. Domino’s is a prime example of how successful companies are already beginning to implement AI technology into their everyday operations. In Australia and New Zealand, Domino’s has begun debuting an AI pizza scanner called “the DOM.” The scanner, which hangs above the cutting board in a Domino’s kitchen, will be able to identify…

Contributed by Bryce Ward This past week a high-dollar restaurant in Manchester, England called Hawksmoor accidentally served a $5,700 bottle of wine to a customer who, presumably, ordered a much more affordable one. Hawksmoor could’ve easily marked this mishap off as a costly mistake, scolded the employee responsible, and moved forward. Instead, they chose to capitalize off their blunder by utilizing social media. Soon after the incident, the restaurant posted this tweet: As you can see, this post garnered quite the response on Twitter, receiving upwards of 66,000 likes in only a handful of days. Hawksmoor’s canny marketing decision turned…

Contributed by Bryce Ward Starting this week, Instagram will be testing a new “like” feature in Canada that, if successful, may work itself over to the American social media landscape. The new feature will hide “like” counts from feeds, and only the people who’ve posted something can see how many likes their post has garnered. Instagram, and most of social media, relies almost entirely on the like/favorite system – some might argue they can’t be separated – so this change has considerable implications, and whether or not these implications are positive is yet to be known. Instagram says they’ve decided…

Contributed by Bryce Ward Each year it seems more and more people are having conversations with a speaker. “Hey Alexa, what’s the weather like?” “OK Google, play Bob Marley radio.” The list goes on. When smart speakers first arrived, they seemed like a novelty item, a fun gift for loved ones, but each year smart speaker sales continue to climb and more and more questions are being directed towards an inanimate speaker. Studies predict that 50% of American households will have a smart speaker by the end of 2020[1] – this is an eyebrow-raising statistic considering that smart speakers have…

Contributed by Bryce Ward Earth Day 2019 has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we should slip back into our ecologically careless ways. In reality, every day should be Earth Day, and businesses play an especially important role in minimizing our footprint. We spend about one-third of our lives at work, meaning the way we interact with the environment while at work (either directly or indirectly) constitutes a considerable portion of our environmental footprint. Due to the often communal nature of working, offices are an effective way to implement green initiatives and minimize our footprint. So, in celebration of…