Amazing discussion with IBM Watson

Today was first step for a long exciting journey for me and Anblicks. We had the first scheduled meeting with Jonas Nwuke, Partner Development, IBM Watson.

As planned invited Kumar to be part of the initial discussion and share the excitement.

After a brief introduction about each other Jonas gave a basic overview of IBM Watson.

Some of the key areas goes like this.

1) IBM Watson is a showcase project to mimic the cognitive part of a human brain. This is revolutionizing the Traditional computing and brining in the new concept of Cognitive computing. Rather than programming a computer for different alternatives, here we feed Watson with a corpus of information and then let it decide and come up with suggestions on its own.

2) Rather than giving a single correct answer, it comes up with multiple answers with confidence scores.

3) On top of that its ability to continuously learn and improve its accuracy on its own makes it remarkable.

One line - which actually changed my thought process is, IBM Watson is going to help highly skilled people like Doctors, Lawyers etc do their regular job in a much efficient way.

That said I started thinking about how Google changed the way Software Developers did their coding. It did not replace Software Developers, but rather helped thousands of developers around the globe to become more efficient. Same holds true for others professionals.

Now IBM Watson is going to revolutionize what Google did 16-18 years back. Out of the zetabytes of data, to take a better decision we will be using IBM Watson all the time as our personal guide for any decision making.

Big day coming up - IBM Watson Ecosystem

To be part of the IBM Watson Ecosystem, is it something great?

Lets see what is the IBM Watson Ecosystem. By definition it says : A community of organizations, providing an outlet for developers and content providers to collaborate and create the next generation of cognitive apps.

Wow, that sounds interesting, so who are the organizations in there? 

As of today there are 5 ecosystem partners.

1. Fluid Inc: The app calls upon Watson’s ability to understand the nuances of human language and uncover answers from Big Data. Consumers who use Fluid’s app will interact with rich media and dialogue with Watson, their newfound “cognitive, expert personal shopper.” The Fluid app incorporates the information users share and questions they ask to help them make smart, satisfying purchases by putting the most knowledgeable sales associate in the hands of consumers, every time.

2. MD Buyline: This provider of supply chain solutions for hospitals and healthcare systems has developed a powered-by-Watson application that allows clinical and financial users make timely, informed decisions to help improve quality, value, outcomes and patient satisfaction. Their Hippocrates application will give users access to a research assistant that provides fast, evidence-based recommendations from a wealth of data, to help medical organizations make the best decisions for their physicians and patients.

3. Welltok, Inc: These personalized itineraries, sponsored by health plans, health systems and health retailers, will include tailored activities, relevant content and condition management programs, and reward users for engaging in healthy behaviors. Consumers who use Welltok’s app – CaféWell Concierge built with IBM Watson – will participate in conversations about their health with Watson. By using Watson’s ability to learn from every interaction, the app will offer insights specific to individuals’ health needs.

4. Healthline: Healthline, a leading provider of health information, data and technology solutions, is lending its comprehensive, health reference library to enable the promotion of healthy lifestyles, support disease prevention, and offer clinically-significant, medically-reviewed health information to everyday people so they are able to make more confident healthcare decisions.

5. Elance: Elance operates an online work marketplace of more than 3 million freelancers specializing in such fields as app development, web programming and graphic design. Elance is creating clouds where app providers can tap into a pool of highly-skilled freelancers who are available to build Watson-enabled apps and have completed an IBM certification program.

Apart from these 5 there are the next batch of 25 companies in the pipeline to become part of the IBM Watson Ecosystem. So it makes a total of 30 companies right now. There may be many more, which is not in my knowledge.

Beyond these all the applicants that applied for the IBM Watson Mobile Developer Challenge are going to be part of the IBM Watson Ecosystem.

Lets see what is IBM Watson and its Ecosystem?

In the youtube video - the first line spoken by Mike Rhodin , Senior VP, IBM Watson Group, “If you can take the best practice of a Lawyer and make it replicable through Watson …”. 

Wow, isnt this the same thing that we at Anblicks are thinking?