How IBM Cloud Is Fueling the Next Generation of Cognitive Startups

IBM Bluemix is helping companies of all sorts build more intuitive applications using Watson cognitive analytics. Here are some interesting examples.

Developed in just three weeks on Bluemix with Watson APIs, Meeka is a wedding planning mobile app created by Brazilian startup Macasei. It uses Watson natural-language APIs, including Watson Dialog, Natural Language Classifier and Language Translation, as well as Watson Retrieve & Rank, a machine learning, result-ranking API, to power a digital personal assistant that helps with arranging all aspects of a wedding. There are plans to embed Watson Tone Analyzer, a tool that helps analyze and detect emotion, social tendencies and language styles; and Personality Insights, a cognitive tool that helps to understand more deeply personality characteristics based on social media analytics.

Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), a collection of uncommon luxury hotels, collaborated with WayBlazer, a cognitive travel platform, to harness the Watson Cognitive Discovery Tool powered by IBM Cloud. The software enables people to use natural dialogue while researching travel online, and provides travelers with tailored recommendations based on specific needs. Using Watson’s natural language processing services on Bluemix, LHW delivers recommendations based on preferences such as pet-friendly hotels, award-winning dining, honeymoon destinations, proximity to a golf course or a beach, and more.

Connectidy is a cognitive dating app that uses IBM Cloud to combine Watson Tone Analyzer, which helps understand the language tones in text, and the Watson Personality Insights service, which helps to uncover a deeper understanding of people’s personality characteristics, needs and values. With Bluemix as a foundation, these tools are integrated with a relationship science platform to help users understand how messages to potential matches may come across.

One of the most intriguing changes driven by Watson’s cognitive influence is the amplified role of psychology in retail transactions. EyeQ Insights is a firm that does just that. With IBM Cloud, the e-commerce tech company uses the Watson Personality Insights service to customize the shopping experience within brick-and-mortar stores. For example, in a bicycle store, eyeQ can determine a shopper’s gender and, in response, show demographically relevant content—men’s bikes, for example—on interactive panels within the store.

Ampsy offers brands a suite of social aggregation tools to collect and curate their best brand and fan social content into engaging social visualizations. Running on IBM Cloud, Ampsy provides live event media aggregation “as a service” through its proprietary media geo-fencing engine. Built and powered by Bluemix, the company’s AmpElite analytics uses three Watson APIs—Personality Insights, Sentiment Analysis and Keyword Extraction.