Business Mobility Gets a Cognitive Upgrade with IBM Watson

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Ten years ago, the iPhone and iPad did not even exist but today, it’s hard to remember life before mobile devices. When I forget my iPhone  at home, I feel anxious or like I’m constantly missing something. Let’s face it: no one feels the same way about leaving a pen behind.

Mobile devices are transforming nearly every aspect of our lives, particularly when it comes to the way we work.

Over three years ago, IBM in partnership with Apple, set out to redefine how professionals across every industry learn, interact, and work. We’ve created a strong portfolio of MobileFirst for iOS made-for-business apps that are changing how thousands of companies across the world are doing business by putting the right information into the hands of employees. And, we continue to push the boundaries on enterprise mobility by introducing new capabilities – like IBM Watson cognitive technology — delivering a new generation of apps that are even more convenient and easier to use.

Expert Seller with Box Platform is one of the most pervasive apps coming out of the partnership that is impacting how employees approach their day-to-day activities. With Expert Seller, the latest product and service information is at the fingertips of an organization’s sales or marketing force via iPhone or iPad, enabling them to quickly learn about new offerings, pricing, features or promotions so they can spend more high-value, face-to-face time engaged with clients or colleagues. The app can be customized to meet the needs of any professional, in any business and be deployed across an organization in a matter of days.

Today, we’re introducing Expert Seller with cognitive capabilities – a completely new way for professionals to engage with the app. Powered with IBM Watson, the app is being upgraded with a cognitive assistant enabling users to make better decisions and deliver more insightful recommendations to customers. This is the first IBM MobileFirst for iOS app to deliver cognitive out of the box—without requiring any immediate input or additional program training.

While AI was once a figment of science fiction, cognitive technologies will take enterprise mobility to even higher levels. Watson APIs are uniquely equipped to handle data-rich industries, like retail or travel and transportation, to uncover patterns and easily deliver insights on mobile with huge amounts of data.

For example, a global retail client wanted its workforce of e-commerce retailers to be able to better access the entire corporate directory seamlessly on the go as they meet with merchants, manufacturers, retailers and designers. Beginning next month, they plan to distribute 2,000 iOS devices to employees, complete with the Expert Seller app and cognitive search capabilities. Using natural language processing, cognitive content assessment and theme relationship analysis, its employees can now get the information they need instantly without wasting time browsing.

As convenient as mobile devices are right now, businesses need a mobile platform that will get the right data to their workforce when they need it most. At IBM, we are lifting the overall work experience for professionals by delivering a powerful combination of cognitive and mobile – creating experiences that are reinventing how employees use data on the job to benefit businesses’ bottom line, making mobile devices as indispensible to our professional lives as they are in our personal ones.