Google

The millennial generation is much less loyal to legacy brands than generations past, and data shows consumers are hungrier for better, faster and more transparent shipping and delivery services, and they don’t much care who provides it.

Software providers say retail customers are reluctant to give business to Google rival Amazon Web Services.

Technologies including cloud-based analytics, mobility and wearables are transforming supply chain efficiencies in what amounts to a digital revolution for industry, said Renee Niemi, director of the Android and Chrome global business for Google for Work, at Monday’s keynote address.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx wants urban planners to think creatively, forgetting transportation jargon, challenging long-held assumptions, and courting new partners in the endeavor - those new partners would be the techies.

Uber and Carnegie Mellon University have announced a strategic partnership that includes the creation of the Uber Advanced Technologies Center, primarily to R&D in the areas of mapping,vehicle safety, and autonomy technology.

Eric Schmidt along with his co-author Jonathan Rosenberg emphasize that the companies must be focused on attracting a completely new sort of employee - "a smart creative" - now that's who you need, a 'doer' for sure!

Google began working on drones in 2011 and said it expected it would "take years to develop a service with multiple vehicles flying multiple deliveries per day."

The Google investment behind Savioke is that it’s a signal of how the robotics world, and those developing for it, are trying for more targeted products as the space continues to mature.

Google has spent the last several months acquiring various robotics companies, while Foxconn began deploying robots en masse at its factories in 2012. Last year, the Taiwan-based company announced plans to invest $40 million in a robot manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, with Gou saying that Foxconn wants to be part of the manufacturing "renaissance" in the US.

Rising wages in the services industry could drive materials handling automation.

Google is looking at shoring up the same kinds of deficiencies that UPS and FedEx may be exploring, like the transport method for shuttling goods from central depots to local sort and delivery facilities.

Easy access to online shopping channels has changed the way that consumers purchase goods. Most retailers would not be surprised to find that e-commerce has outpaced in-store purchases in recent years. Research by comScore found that U.S. online retailing grew 13 percent during the first quarter of 2013. By comparison, the entire industry saw a modest 2 percent expansion during the same period.

Sridhar Ramaswamy, who as Google’s SVP of Ads and Commerce oversees the technology behind Google Shopping, explains how combining classic retail truths with digital savvy can help retailers do what matters most: serve their customers better.

Watch how SAP and Google are pairing enterprise applications with consumer-friendly tools to bring “big data” to life. With location-based intelligence capabilities from SAP, people will be able to interact with real-time information via Google Maps and Google Earth to analyze their businesses in a geospatial context to better understand the “where” of their information.

Google Glass is Google’s project to create augmented reality glasses. Google Glass is being designed for consumers, but the first clear business application may occur in warehouses.