IBM is all set to launch ‘Watson’, a smart enterprise assistant powered with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) that can be used through voice or text interaction. The aim is to assist businesses in enhancing their brand loyalty and transform customer experiences.

United States: IBM recently announced the formal launch of Watson, a smart enterprise assistant that is powered with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) and can be accessed through voice or text interaction, aimed at aiding businesses in enhancing brand loyalty and transforming customer experiences while maintain data privacy and security.

The announcement was made by the CEO of IBM, at "Think 2018", who informed that Watson will start a huge integrated system. It has been broken it into API, and micro-services. It will be platform for businesses. Watson Assistant has been pre-trained for various verticals like hospitality, automotive where it can be embedded in anything from customer care to banking and insurance. It can be easily accessed through voice or text as per the of the business and consumer interaction.

Watson Assistant is already being used at the Munich Airport in Terminal 2 as "Josie Pepper", as an ambassador to assist passengers and interact with them as they cross the terminal. A source from IBM informed that the IBM Watson Assistant and Watson Conversation Services have been used to develop a conversational back-end support that provides a huge variety of topics for Josie to discuss, from real-time airport information, to weather to small talk.

IBM also announced that in line with its partnership with apple, the two companies will combine their AI and machine-learning technologies to facilitate the developers in building secure AI-powered solutions that continuously learn and adapt.

According to TechSci Research, Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interconnected computing devices, machines, etc., that are equipped with unique identifiers and can transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Anticipated growth in the US IoT market during 2017-2022 can be attributed to growing number of connected devices, rising internet penetration, growing BYOD trend coupled with increasing technological advancements. In addition, with growing adoption of IoT technology in various application areas including smart cities, smart manufacturing, logistics, transportation, etc., demand for IoT services in the US is forecast to grow over the course of next five years.

According to the recently published report by TechSci Research, “US Internet of Things (IoT) Market, By Component, By Communication Technology, By End Use Industry, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2012 – 2022”, Internet of Things market in the US is projected to grow at a CAGR over 14% during 2017-2022. As a market segment, ‘Hardware’ accounts for largest share in the country’s IoT market, followed by ‘Software’ and ‘Services’ segments. Moreover, consumer electronics and transportation sectors dominated the US IoT market in 2016, and the segments are anticipated to continue dominating the country’s IoT market in the coming years as well. Few of the major players operating in IoT landscape in the US include AT&T, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Intel, Hitachi Data Systems etc.

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