IBM unveils Watson breakthrough, Celcom gets on board

• ‘Watson At Your Service’ transforms how brands engage today's connected consumers 
• Celcom in early engagement programme, believes will get deeper customer insights

IBM has unveiled the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor, a technology it claims allows brands to crunch big data in record time and transform the way they engage clients in key functions such as customer service, marketing and sales.

Watson is IBM’s cognitive computing initiative, which revolves around artificial intelligence-type features designed to mimic the human senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. Computers will learn and adapt.

Now businesses can better serve consumers with a cognitive computing assistant that learns, adapts and understands a company's data quickly and easily, IBM said in a statement.
 
Leading brands from a variety of industries including ANZ Banking Group, Celcom, IHS, Nielsen and Royal Bank of Canada are exploring how the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor can help them engage with their customers.

“Celcom is proud to be a part of the IBM Watson Customer Early Engagement Programme,” said Shazalli Ramly (pic), chief executive officer of Celcom Axiata Bhd, Malaysia’s first mobile operator to ever launch.
 
“Our participation aims to help us harness the power of Watson in analysing raw data to provide deeper customer insights and preferences in near real time. This will facilitate the delivery of targeted customer offerings, simplify end-user interactions and provide richer customer experiences across our products, services and touch points,” he said.

The IBM Watson Engagement Advisor is a first of a kind system designed to help customer-facing personnel assist consumers with deeper insights more quickly than previously possible, the company claims.
 
Delivered through cloud-delivered services and online chat sessions, IBM Watson will empower a brand's customer service agents to provide fast, data-driven answers, or sit directly in the hands of consumers via mobile device.
 
In one simple click, the solution's ‘Ask Watson’ feature will quickly help address customers' questions, offer feedback to guide their purchase decisions, and troubleshoot their problems.

“Watson's unique capacity to uncover insights from big data by simply posing a question in natural language is incredibly powerful,” Randall Beard, global head of Advertiser Solutions for Nielsen.
 
“Using Watson, we will explore the ways we can help agencies and their client brands more effectively engage with consumers across devices and improve the impact of their advertising and media plans,” he added.
 
Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the newest capabilities of IBM Watson are a natural fit for customer engagement, based on its ability to understand the nuances of human language, process questions akin to the way people think, and quickly cull through vast amounts of big data for relevant, evidence-based responses to its human users' needs, the company said.

The rise of the digital consumer has spawned a range of online, mobile and social media commerce trends that require businesses to deepen their interactions with customers and transform the way they provide marketing, sales and service, IBM said.
 
Consumers expect brands to know them individually, deliver personalised interactions and self-service options. Business leaders -- such as chief marketing officers, customer experience leaders and heads of sales -- must transform the way they interact with consumers to build brand loyalty and improve customer service.
 
IBM Watson, via cognitive computing intellect, can proactively engage with a business' customers, and continuously learn from interactions, anytime and anywhere, providing fast, more accurate and personalised interactions, the company claimed.

“Customer engagement is a natural fit for Watson, which can instantly create a strong bond between who customers are as individuals, and what types of information will help them reach their goals,” said Manoj Saxena (pic), general manager, IBM Watson Solutions.
 
“The end product: Users will come away feeling known as people, empowered as consumers, and engaged as satisfied brand ambassadors who are willing to champion the business to friends and family," he added.

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