IBM is taking a big step toward fleshing out the business potential of its Watson technology, announcing a new Cognitive Business Solutions unit on Tuesday. The practice will include more than 2,000 consultants skilled in machine learning, data science and analytics.
It's a big bet for IBM but the company is convinced it's a safe one, judging from the announcement:
"Cognitive computing is the path to the next great set of possibilities for business," said Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services. "Clients know they are collecting and analyzing more data than ever before, but 80 percent of all the available data -- images, voice, literature, chemical formulas, social expressions -- remains out of reach for traditional computing systems."
Going Vertical
To start, IBM is honing in on industries such as banking, retail and insurance. An upcoming IBM research survey of 5,000 C-suite executives found that nearly all respondents in those verticals plan to invest in cognitive capabilities. However, executives also widely cited the lack of available skills for cognitive technology as a hurdle.
"Their whole point is really taking the next generation of computing to all their different areas," such as talent management and big data, says Constellation Research founder Ray Wang. "They're trying to get these systems to find patterns of insights and make decisions. This is talking about going from transactions to systems that think."
The Bottom Line
All business leaders should start thinking about what their company's cognitive strategy should look like, with a particular focus on how systems can learn from the business's own employees, Wang adds.
IBM and Watson are not the only options in the market for cognitive capabilities, given the likes of Wipro's Holmes, and it remains early days overall for the market. "In all wars and battles for technology dominance its not necessarily the best technology, it's the best ecosystem," he says. "We're just at the beginning of this."
