IBM Hosts Watson Coming-Out Party in NYC

by Darryl K. Taft

IBM rented the 54th floor of 4 World Trade Center, which overlooks the reconstruction of the 9/11 terrorist attack site, to host its Watson Group introduction.

IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty delivers opening remarks, noting that IBM does not open new business units very often, so Watson is expected to be something special for the company.

IBM Senior Vice President Mike Rhodin was named head of the company’s new Watson Group, an IBM business unit that will develop products around the Watson technology.

Rhodin talks about the Watson ecosystem and what IBM is investing in it—namely $100 million to get developers, venture capitalists and partners to build apps based on the Watson technology.

IBM employees at the company’s offices in New York City are working on delivering new cloud services based on Watson technology.

The IBM Watson Group will be headquartered at 51 Astor Place in New York City’s “Silicon Alley” technology hub. The business unit will employ 2,000 professionals, with one-third of IBM Research dedicated to Watson cognitive technology.

The new Watson Discovery Advisor enables users to quickly uncover insights buried in big data.

The Watson Engagement Advisor rapidly sifts through gobs of big data to enable organizations to transform the way they engage with customers in functions such as customer service, marketing and sales.

At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Assistant Professor of Leukemia Dr. Courtney DiNardo uses Watson while consulting with patient Rich Ware. The system helps doctors develop and fine-tune cancer treatment plans.

In Singapore, Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Group Holdings & DBS Bank, and Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, sign an agreement for DBS to deploy Watson. The bank will apply Watson to its wealth management business to improve the advice and experience delivered to affluent customers.

Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity and founding chairman or Kayak.com, said travel search engines can’t provide old-fashioned expert advice that users want, but adding Watson to the mix could result in more satisfied customers as it “makes you feel good” about the experience.

Dr. Guruduth Banavar, vice president of cognitive computing at IBM Research, talks about how IBM is working on giving Watson the power to perceive patterns using IBM Research’s SyNAPSE technology.

At the Watson Group launch, IBM hosted a series of Watson technology demonstrations from both IBMers and partners. When IBM announced its Watson ecosystem last November, 750 companies expressed interest.

Brooke Aguilar, vice president of Global Business Development at IBM partner Fluid Retail, demonstrates Fluid’s Expert Personal Shopper (XPS), which is based on Watson.

Watson Foundations is a comprehensive set of big data and analytics capabilities that enable users to find and capitalize on actionable insights. This demo shows how Watson can be used to help automobiles “see” around corners.