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Elementary, My Dear: Watson Sports Partnerships Give Clues to IBM's Decidedly Clever Strategy

By Ken Briodagh October 21, 2015

IBM announced on October 21 a series of new partnerships, with Triax TechnologiesTM, Spare5 and 113 Industries, to develop cognitive applications powered by Watson with the goal of preventing concussions in athletics, revolutionizing golf training, amplification of the game-day experience for fans and (modestly) transforming the future of sports.

This could indicate that IBM is ready to get itself in front of consumers again, at least when it comes to IoT-related partnerships. Watson as ambassador? I get it.

Watson’s ability to interact in natural language, analyze large volumes of unstructured data, respond to complex questions with evidence-based answers, and discover new actionable patterns and insights makes it uniquely suited for the domain of sports, an industry that’s becoming much more scientific thanks to its need for clever big data analytics to improve the health and performance of athletes.

IBM’s partner organizations are building applications and services businesses and installing embedded cognitive technology for use in any industry that can use it, including entertainment, retail, travel and hospitality, healthcare, financial services, legal, and education.

Image via Shutterstock

“Cognitive is a new form of computing that represents a seismic shift in technology. We've moved beyond systems that are programmed - the technologies most of us use today - to systems that understand, reason and learn,” said Lauri Saft, VP, Watson Ecosystem, IBM. “These latest partnerships exemplify the entrepreneurial nature of our Watson ecosystem. Like so many other industries, sports is awash in data, and cognitive computing allows IBM’s partners like Triax Technologies, 113 Industries and Spare5 to apply deeper insights to all of that information to improve athlete performance and redefine the fan experience.”

Investment in making sports safer not only improves the sports themselves, but also IBM’s share of mind among the vast numbers of sports fans. Knowing that Watson is out to crunch all that data and turn it into actionable intelligence for use by the athletics safety folks makes fans feel good. And they’ll feel good about IBM.

As well they should.




Edited by Kyle Piscioniere
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