Weekly Watson: Quotes about Trend App

December 11, 2015

I know. I know. I keep writing about IBM Watson. The product, service, marketing behemoth is the future of IBM. I think it is even though another IBM Watson top dog headed for the greener grass at GE. (Read about the jump in “GE Poaches Key IBM Watson Exec.” I like the “key” word.)

My highlight of the IBM Watson week is a story in Customer Think. I don’t pay much attention to the customer think arena, but I saw a link to Watson and gave the mouse a poke.

Bull’s eye. The write up is an interview under the SEO friendly title “IBM Chief Strategist for Watson Trend App Answers 4 Questions for Marketing Innovators.”

Yikes. Am I allowed to read this interview. I am not a marketing innovator and my questions usually go unanswered; for example, what happened to the goal of $10 billion in Watson revenue in five years? See what I mean.

Here are three highlights from the interview with Justin Norwood, who carries a significant burden with the Watson as a consumer app play.

Mr. Norwood is an innovator. Here’s his response to a question about why the Watson Trend App is important:

I believe that cognitive computing – of which IBM Watson is the leading example – is the missing link to making mass personalization a reality.

Belief, like hope and faith, is a useful characteristic. I personally put a bit more emphasis on revenue. But that’s what makes horse races.

A second quote I circle in Big Blue blue is:

The app has already improved my personal gift giving experience.

Yes, hands on personal testimony. I wonder what the recipients of the gifts have to say. Did the app really hit the gift on the head or were the recipients (Mr. Norwood’s daughters) telling anyone who would listen what they wanted from Amazon, an outfit with some recommendation technology that works okay. It produces revenue by the way.

The third and final gem I circled in red ink red (my Big Blue blue marker gave out on me):

I am also very motivated to see an end to hunger and malnutrition in Africa in my lifetime, so I recently partnered with an organization called Seeds of Action to work towards that.

Good idea. Imagine how much money can be routed to help folks in Africa if IBM Watson generates the much needed billions IBM management presaged a couple of years ago. By the way, there are hungry folks in the USA as well.

Stephen E Arnold, December 11, 2015

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