While I get to see and hear about hundreds of product announcements, this one is particularly interesting. The race to leverage computing power to synthesize incredibly huge amounts of disparate data in real time to meet the needs of customer demands is the next frontier of customer relations.
Today at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, IBM plans to launch the Watson Engagement Advisor, aimed at helping organizations provide better customer service and product recommendations in real time at scale. The same technology that once outsmarted humans to win Jeopardy and has recently been used to diagnose cancer will now be used to help organizations sense and respond in real time.
From CNBC:
Big Blue announced five new clients working on using Watson’s cognitive computing and ability to crunch so-called big data, to help enhance service to their customers. The companies include Malaysia telecom provider Celcom, financial firms Royal Bank of Canada and ANZ Banking Group, IT services provider IHS, and the consumer research firm Nielsen.
“We’ll be exploring ways to use Watson for helping our agencies and their client brands engage more effectively with consumers across all devices—from TV to tablet to smartphone,” wrote Randall Beard, chief of Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen.
While it still seems early, this area is certainly something to watch.
