Curiosity may be a hidden driver of the Internet of Things. Various studies have shown that familiarity with many IoT technologies or products is relatively low. A consumer obviously isn't likely to buy something they don't know about.

AI-powered personal assistant apps are spreading in certain parts of the market while others take a downward turn. While Apple's Siri is still the top-ranking personal app based on the number of monthly users, it has dropped 15%, losing 7 million monthly users from a year ago, based on a new report. Samsung is in a similar situation, losing nearly 2 million users of its S Voice over the same period.

Many business leaders are interested in tapping artificial intelligence for their company, but most are not yet using it in any form. One of the main challenges expected is how easily AI can be utilized in their business, based on a new study. While most business leaders are interested or even welcoming of AI into their business, the majority (69%) of companies are not using. An additional 17% are unsure, while only 13% of companies said they are currently using AI.

Virtual reality can't logically replace a trip, but it sure can provide some insight into what a trip might be like. Rather than the purchase of a physical thing, travel is generally about an experience. And that's where virtual and augmented reality come in.

The first robots many U.S. consumers come face to face with may be bringing them something. For Mother's Day, 1-800-Flowers.com used a delivery robot to bring flowers and other gifts to surprised mother, as one example. The robot, from Starship Technologies, also used audio, so music started playing as soon as the flower recipient opened the top of the robot to receive her flowers, as I wrote about here at the time.

Virtual reality is joining shopper marketing. A virtual supermarket was created for a major brand to measure the impact of various in-store marketing approaches. The pilot program was created by System1 Research for Hershey's chocolate to better understand how in-store signage and kiosks would impact consumer behavior relating to Hershey products. To go over what was learned, I caught up with Gabriel Aleixo, managing director, behavioral economics at System1 Research, part of System1 Group, the behavioral science and marketing company formerly known as Brainjuicer.

There are smart devices and then there are consumers who know about smart devices The problem is, there are many more smart devices than there are people familiar with them. Most people are familiar with smartphones and smart TVs, since pretty much any phone or TV bought today is, by definition, a smart device.

Anyone who flies and checks luggage knows the drill. You land, meander your way to the baggage claim carousel and wait. And sometimes wait, and then wait some more. The conveyor belt starts and the waiting changes to hope. As in, 'I hope my bag arrives.' At that stage, the lost luggage person still is hoping.

With the prospects of the coming connections of billions and billions of things, there's one very connected thing that remains as the leader of the pack: the smartphone. Rather than the little hand-held computer fading away, consumers continue their quest for the latest and greatest in smartphone technology. It turns out that six in 10 smartphone owners plan to upgrade with a year, based on a new tally by Global Web Index.

It's still not really in the mass market category, but the number of virtual reality headsets to be bought this year will be nearly double those bought a year ago. One of the main reasons is that consumers still are not very familiar with virtual reality, based on new tracking data. Within the next year, 9% of U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a virtual reality headset, up from 5% a year ago, according to research from Parks Associates.