Significant Others: Salesforce Einstein and IBM Watson

March 13, 2017

The flow of semi-smart software publicity continues. Keep in mind that most smart software is little more than search with wrappers performing special operations.

The proud parents of Einstein and Watson announced that one another’s smart software systems have become a thing. Salesforce has scripts and numerical recipes to make it easier to figure out if a particular client really wants to drop the service. Watson brings Jeopardy type question answering and lots of data training to the festive announcement party.

I enjoyed “Salesforce Will Be Using IBM Watson to Make its Einstein AI Service Even Smarter.” The write up strikes me as somewhat closer to the realities of the tie up than the inebriated best wishes emanating from many other “real” journalists. For example, the write up asserts:

By bringing its all-important Watson service to Salesforce and Einstein customers, IBM is determined to double-down on that huge Salesforce consulting market, not compete with it.

IBM cannot “become” Salesforce. But Salesforce generates a need for services in many large companies. The idea is that Einstein does its thing to help a sales professional close a deal, and IBM Watson can do its thing to make “sense” of the content related to the company paying Salesforce for an integrated sales prospecting and closing system.

My take is that this is not much more than a co-publicity set up with the hope that the ability of Salesforce to talk about its tie up with IBM will generate sales and buzz. IBM hopes that its PR capabilities will produce some mileage for the huffing and puffing Watson “solution.”

In my opinion, IBM is turning cartwheels to get substantial, evergreen revenue from the Watson thing. But IBM may be pushing another fantasy animal into the revenue race. Quantum computing as a service is the next big thing. Now is quantum computing something one can actually use?

Nah, but the point is that revenue is not news at IBM. Quantum computing gives the IBM marketers another drum to bang. Moving in with Salesforce provides a way to sell something, anything, maybe.

Stephen E Arnold, March 13, 2017

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, IBM Watson, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.