AMT Lab hopes that our readers had a good 4th of July! Just in case June passed you by, we're here to bring you the best news stories from this past month. June was full of new reports and updates on chatbots, smart cities, and the successes of VR. These insights and updates are show just how quickly these fields are moving forward.

VR and Chatbots are on the rise

As reported on Quartz, VR is growing so rapidly, that it could challenge Netflix in number of users within 5 years. It's projected to become an $8 billion industry by 2022.  Although it's been previously shown that VR had fairly slow growth, the annual PwC Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2018-2022 projects a shift into much faster growth. 

In addition to this, chatbots are reported to save businesses $6 billion this year, and according to this study done by Juniper Research, that number is only expected to grow. This particularly effects retail, which is important for museum stores, box offices, and merchandise sales at art institutions. If you'd like to know more about how easy it is to set up a chatbot for your organization, read our article from earlier this year on ManyChat.  

Salesforce moves to the cloud

Saleforce has launched a cloud based platform aimed at offering CRM services to non-profit organizations. Now the power behind salesforce is open to more institutions, so that they can use AI to better understand their donors and to have better data analytics at their fingertips. Although being cloud-based can present some challenges, this is certainly something to watch as it develops further. 

Smart Cities

McKinsey released a report on Smart Cities, what they are and how they can improve life. Although AMT Lab has reported on similar topics in the past, this information dives into the direct possibilities for smart cities, complete with videos and other visual content. Our biggest take away is that leaders are starting to think about smart cities, not just from the perspective of integrating tech into everyday life, but from the human perspective. Human-centric planning is deeply related to design thinking and creatives being integrated in the development process. 

LACMA offers technology grants

Through their Art & Technology Lab grants, LACMA has awarded 4 grants to artists working on specific projects. This Hyperalleric article discusses more about what the grant entails, including an advisory board as well as providing money and space, and it introduces the winning artists. Some projects are about building up the technology around their art, like mapping out how AI impacts cultural production. Others are more directly related to art created by technology.

Finally, just in case you missed it. Hyperallergic reported on Byonce and Jay Z's new video that is set at the Louvre. The video mixes the masterworks with modern production, but the artwork is displayed front and center. Just a note that the video does have explicit language and may be NSFW.