IBM Unveils New Start Ups and Ecosystem Partners Delivering Watson

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ Next generation leaders push themselves everyday to answer this key question: How can my organization make a difference? IBM (NYSE: IBM) is helping deliver the answer with new apps that are powered by Watson from Ecosystem Partners to improve the quality of life from better managing health and enriching the customer experience, to enabling new research and education.

IBM's Watson is a groundbreaking platform that represents a new era of computing based on its ability to interact in natural language, process vast amounts of disparate forms of big data and learn from each interaction.

With 19 million global developers and a new generation of innovators entering the workforce, entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprises alike are looking for ways to mobilize their business, transform industries and improve society. According to technology research firm Gartner, Inc., smart machines will be the most disruptive change ever brought about by information technology, and can make people more effective, empowering them to do 'the impossible.'

IBM is advancing these new possibilities with Watson and is unveiling Ecosystem Partners that are making their visions a reality. Built on IBM Cloud with SoftLayer at its base, these apps use Watson's cognitive intellect in areas as diverse as helping physicians work with patients to better manage their health, assist veterinarians in providing the best possible care to animals, and tapping into personal preferences to help travelers plan the perfect vacation, and many more.

'These innovators, embodying the entrepreneurial spirit, are transforming the ways industry and individuals operate harnessing the power of Watson's cognitive intellect and creating outcomes once thought impossible to achieve,' said Stephen Gold, Vice President, IBM Watson Group. 'This marks an important milestone for the Watson Ecosystem as we empower organizations to use next generation technology, using information as the cognitive fuel, to help solve formidable challenges across industries.'

Leveraging IBM Watson technology, these Ecosystem Partners have developed powered by Watson apps that are generally available and being used by customers and organizations today.

Transforming Travel

Terry Jones founder of Travelocity and founding chairman of Kayak.com, is looking to redefine the travel experience. Researching travel alternatives can be a near impossible chore. Even for travelers that know their destination and dates, the sheer breadth of options and overwhelming amount of data requires visiting 20 or more website to research, compare, and book a leisure holiday. Powered by the cognitive intellect of Watson, WayBlazer knows, engages, advises, and learns about a consumer with each interaction, using a visual and natural language interface to make sure optimal travel choices are made. The Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is using a version of the new WayBlazer app. With the app, the organization hopes to improve convention bookings, increase hotel bookings and provide additional revenue streams from Ecosystem Partner and affiliate marketing opportunities. WayBlazer (Austin, TX), a new company led by travel visionary and entrepreneur

Transforming Retail

Watson's cognitive computing technology. The mobile app is a retail sales trainer that lets employees easily identify individual customers' buying preferences by analyzing demographics, purchase history and wish lists, as well as product information, local pricing, customer reviews and tech specs. It uses voice or text input to enable a simple question-and-answer interface against the wealth of information available within a retail business, including product information, copybooks, manuals, customer reviews, and more. Red Ant is a Red Ant (London, UK) is helping retailers, including Three, a UK-based mobile company, ensure sales associates exceed customers' expectations with its Sell Smart app built using Watson Mobile Developer Challenge winner.

Reflexis (Dedham, MA) is working with Watson to enable retailers, Quick Serve Restaurants, hospitality, and other companies to uncover hidden demand triggers and provide the best possible customer experience. The company's Watson interconnect module for the Reflexis StorePulse real-time execution application enables companies to drive best-practice actions in response to local events, social media buzz, news, weather, and other influences that affect customer demand.

Sellpoints (Emeryville, CA) , an e-commerce technology provider, is unveiling its Watson powered app called Natural Selection, which uses natural language to put the right products in front of the right shoppers at the exact moment they're ready to buy. For example, when a shopper searches for a product using natural language, such as 'My second grader needs help learning science basics,' the cognitive app returns product results sorted by relevance, which subsequently increases conversion rates for the retailer.

Transforming Non-Profit

Findability Sciences (Waltham, MA) is bringing a Watson app to the non-profit sector to enable funders and donors to ask questions using natural language and receive answers instantaneously. This enables funders to make smarter investing decisions and better work to maximize existing investments to deliver the most impact.

Transforming Veterinary Care

LifeLearn (Guelph, Canada) is changing the way veterinarians practice medicine by empowering them with the new LifeLearn Sofie mobile app, which helps doctors research different treatment options for animals. LifeLearn's beta client Animal Medical Center in New York is just one of the leading industry partners using LifeLearn Sofie to help improve patient outcomes. The Sofie app, built from scratch with Watson, crowdsources the expertise from the entire profession by analyzing data from text books, knowledge from doctors and teaching hospitals, and uses natural language Q&A to provide veterinarians immediate possibilities that equate to third and fourth professional opinions.

Transforming Healthcare

GenieMD (Pleasanton, CA) is using Watson's cognitive intellect and data analysis to understand an individual's personal health profile and asks Watson questions for the user so they don't have to in times of concern. For example, the GenieMD mobile app analyzes a persons profile and sends push notifications to the user with information on how to manage their diabetes or how to prevent hypertension. GenieMD is a Watson Mobile Developer Challenge winner.

Welltok (Denver, CO) is calling upon Watson's unique ability to process massive volumes of health data and content within seconds. Building on Welltok's health optimization platform, CafeWell Concierge dialogues with consumers and provides dynamic, personalized guidance to optimize their health.

@Point of Care (Livingston, NJ) , a service provider for the health care industry,is using Watson to help physicians support patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The physician-facing mobile app is helping the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America enable MS patients to better track and manage their symptoms easily from any device and will be rolled out across @Point of Care's 15 other therapeutic areas.