The Mc&T team took a hiatus from SXSW Interactive this year, but we watched from afar so we could update you with the best trends to come out of the festival. This year felt like a key moment was missing from the festival programme - with no new tech announced and no one 'stealing the show' from a guerilla marketing pov. Previously we'd seen BBH create WiFi hotspots out of homeless people, kids getting tasered by drones and this bright young spark branding meat with buzzwords. 2017 felt like it missed its news moment. However, it is still SXSW and there is lots on offer, so here are three key trends to come out of the festival:

AI: AR and VR are great but no one is sure what to do with them. AI, however, threatens to take over both, particularly machine-learning and the automation of human jobs. For the second year running SXSW had a live interview with a robot on stage and futurologist Bruce Sterling, who proved he is no slouch by last year predicting Trump success in the polls, used his closing address to remind us that deep learning could be the most potent form of automation. You can listen to it here

Politics: Al Gore, Ed Snowden, Julian Assagne, Barack Obama. These are all previous keynote speakers at SXSW. This year had ex Vice President Joe Biden up, showing that politics is never far from tech, media and regulation. The fact that FBI Director James Comey pulled out of his speech at SXSW this year shows that political turmoil is still very much in process and no sector can react with certainty to the Trump administration

Health & Wellness: This growth sector quietly replaced 'food innovation' as a hot vertical. Previously we'd seen Oreo create its Trending Vending machine at SXSW, or IBM use its Watson computer to create recipes. This year it was about embeddables telling you what food is good to eat, genetics that identify superhero genes and food trucks that grow sustainable vegetables. Read more here