In today’s world, every successful company is a tech company.

It’s become impossible to separate business strategy from technological innovation, so everyone from retailers to health care professionals are investing heavily in tech solutions to help them market, improve offerings and drive business. We’re also living and working in the age of industry overhaul, where tech companies like Yelp, Netflix and Lyft have essentially obliterated longstanding giants like Zagat, Blockbuster and traditional taxis. The underlying message is clear: Adapt to the digitalization of the workplace or become obsolete.

For many executives, this push to embrace innovation is perplexing due to the constant deluge of exciting new technologies. The U.S. economy grew 2.3% last year, but technology is expensive, and examples abound of companies that went bankrupt because they invested in the wrong technology — or the right one but too soon.

Fortunately, early-adoption case studies offer opportunities to gauge the effectiveness of new technologies. The following tech trends are revolutionary, rapidly maturing and have been successfully applied broadly across industries. From these examples, we can all learn how to leverage emerging technology to better serve our employees and customers.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence triggers a substantial amount of both excitement and fear as well as lots of media coverage. It’s not a new concept — the term was originally coined in 1956 — but developers finally have the processing power and data necessary to train programs to solve organizational problems and optimize efficiencies. In a recent Gartner study, every company surveyed relayed their intention to incorporate AI-driven solutions, with 41% already in the pilot or adoption phase. Machine learning has become increasingly embedded in many new technologies and solutions, delivering in-depth insight into business metrics and improving data-based decision-making.

Consider supply chain management. While even highly seasoned professionals are prone to under- or overstocking, machine-learning forecasting engines apply algorithms and hierarchies to predict future need with exceptional accuracy. Food giant Nestlé uses supply chain forecasting to improve forecasting accuracy on a global level, with more than 447 factories operating in 194 countries. This strategy improved Nestlé’s sales precision by 9% in Brazil alone.

Meanwhile, Salesforce debuted a CRM solution that uses machine learning to build comprehensive data-based customer profiles, identify crucial touch points and uncover additional sales opportunities. Lowe’s in-store “LoweBot” applies sophisticated voice recognition, autonomous movement and machine learning to assist customers, process inventory and search for product or price discrepancies. And SPS Companies, Inc., a manufacturing and wholesale distributor, has improved talent metrics and completely redefined its employee experience by implementing an AI-based HCM solution that can identify employee pain points in real time. (Full disclosure: SPS Companies, Inc. and First Horizon National Corporation are Ultimate Software customers.)