HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey is real and his name is Watson!

HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey is real and his name is Watson!

IBM’s Watson is creating the cognitive enterprise

Matching the value of technology to bring real business value has always been a focus here at iSOA Group. And, what we learned at Worldof Watson Conference at the end October that we no longer have to use imagined images of movie-inspired AI to envision the new cognitive era – these new opportunities are already a reality!

This new era of technology, as discussed by Ginny Rometty, CEO of IBM, during her keynote address on Wednesday of the conference, is transforming industries and our present view of technology.

See the keynote, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCoI0k7Gkn4

IBM's Watson has gone from a winning contestant on Jeopardy, to taking its "genius" on the road to learn about the world of service, and that can now:

1) Combine weather data and knowledge of the wear and tear on machinery (such as utility poles) to accurately recommend when to replace them before failure.

2) Read and understand 200 million pages of regulations in minutes to assess and assure your company’s compliance.

3) Help a musician understand a variety of musical genres according to listener preference in order to help guide him in writing a top 10 hit.

4) Continually observe and learn about our world without loss of memory, all the while becoming smarter and providing better guidance to humans.

5) Learn vs being programmed.

6) Help patients predict the occurrence of an asthma attack so that they can take preventative measures.

And it isn't just IBM; Cisco and IBM are teaming up to create smarter meetings. Think about it - Watson helps you schedule your next offer management meeting.  During scheduling, Watson observes you have included “Joe” as a required attendee, but Joe is a procrastinator and never responds to scheduling invitations until the last minute. Seeing this, Watson recommends making Joe optional and suggests the most convenient time.  Or, as the Cisco presenter suggested, what if Watson attends each meeting, listens, learns, and dare I say, remembers the discussion so that we’re assured progress and key milestones are achieved.

This “Augmented Intelligence” system is smart and getting smarter (hopefully not in the direction of  HAL) – but what are YOU doing to take advantage of it?  Are you looking at an API strategy that not only includes your services and external applications, but incorporates new capabilities from Watson and other services to assure your company is leading in innovation? 

Let's get smarter together!