When it comes to new technology, development usually proceeds incrementally. But progress continues to be made on many fronts.

Blockchain is getting bigger at Big Blue.

Joseph Selle, IBM's executive in charge of cognitive transformation and operations, is among technology experts who believe artificial intelligence is applicable not only across the supply chain but throughout every department and function in a company.

Logistics providers have been relatively slow in embracing artificial intelligence and machine learning. Now, the technology is finally beginning to have an impact on key business decisions throughout the industry.

Not much time passes these days between so-called major advancements in artificial intelligence. Yet researchers are not much closer than they were decades ago to the big goal: actually replicating human intelligence. That’s the most surprising revelation by a team of eminent scholars who just released the first in what is meant to be a series of annual reports on the state of AI.