IBM launches pretrained Watson packs for industries

IBM outlined prepackaged Watson tools pretrained for various industries use cases such as agriculture, customer service, human resources, manufacturing and marketing.

The move highlights a growing trend in both artificial intelligence and machine learning where technology providers are trying to provide easier-to-implement options that can be used without teams of data scientists.

Each Watson pack is in different states of release but take best practices and training knowledge from various IBM engagements. For instance, IBM said its Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture is generally available. IBM has integrated its weather data as well as Internet of things end points in agriculture and images to provide a "predictive view of a farm." Farmers would get an app for realtime decision support.

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Here's a rundown of other areas where IBM is pre-training Watson for industries and functions.

• A customer service Watson pack is also being released after a pilot with Deluxe Corp. The Watson customer service app aims to bring service agents relevant information about a caller in real-time without a lot of training.
• For human resources, Watson tools will analyze the background of current top performing employees from diverse backgrounds and aim to find similar traits among applicants.
• IBM's Watson Assistant for marketing converts metrics to actionable information to be used for personalized campaigns. On the advertising front, Watson is using weather data to tailor ads.
• Watson Supply Chain Insights is generally available and aims to couple weather data, traffic reports and regulatory changes to give enterprises a better view of a supply chain.
• Toolsets based on Watson and IoT analytics are being used for manufacturing for industrial equipment with a focus on product inspection, productivity, skills gaps and material costs as well as downtime and defects.
• IBM IoT building Insights will examine data from commercial properties to cut energy costs and gauge occupancy trends. Five ways IoT projects can power your 2019 IT budget planning
• Watson will also be tailored to automobile manufacturing with a focus on specifications, requirements and add recommendations to improve quality.

Here are some screenshots of the Watson efforts tailored to agriculture.

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