IBM Hosts Watson Coming-Out Party in NYC

IBM Hosts Watson Coming-Out Party in NYC

by Darryl K. Taft

IBM Introduces the Watson Group at 4 World Trade Center

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 CEO Ginny Rometty Expects Watson to Be Special

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.

Mike Rhodin Takes the Helm

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.

The Watson Ecosystem

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’s Watson Group at Work

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

Watson’s New Headquarters

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.

Watson Discovery Advisor

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

Watson Engagement Advisor

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.

Watson Helps Fight Leukemia

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.

DBS Bank Turns to Watson

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.

Watson and Travel

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.

Giving Watson the Power to Perceive Patterns

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.

Watson Technology Demos

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.

Fluid Retail Bases Expert Personal Shopper on Watson

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 Lets Users Capitalize on Actionable Insights

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.