IBM launched at the THINK conference in Las Vegas the new generation of smart assistants - Watson Assistant. It initiates actions by itself, in a natural conversation, and provides information based on the user's preferences and lifestyle, with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The innovative development was led by Gabi Zodik, global director for IOT technologies at IBM's research laboratory in Haifa.
IBM unveiled Watson Assistant - the first smart assistant of its kind in the industry, which combines artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, and the "Internet of Things" (IoT), which knows how to predict the needs of the user, present proactive recommendations and provide a personalized user experience.
Watson Assistant can be used in any environment, object or service: car, hotel room, retail store, conference room and more - while offering a new level of user experience at work, at home and on the go. It combines a deep understanding of the user's preferences and his special characteristics along with context-dependent variables such as location, the time of day, the weather, and more.
The digital assistants that have been available up until now have indeed affected various and diverse aspects of the users' daily activities - from controlling the lighting or the audio system to reporting on the weather forecast - but they have not gotten to know the users in depth, and above all they were not intended to be integrated into business-organizational activities Or the "Internet of Things" world. Watson Assistant, on the other hand, knows how to derive insights from every interaction it manages in a way that allows it to proactively predict the user's needs, within the framework of his lifestyle and daily routine, and provide him with a personalized VIP experience.
So, for example, a personal assistant integrated into the car will recommend to the driver on the way home from work to stop at his favorite food chain in order to purchase products for dinner: this, based on information derived from previous interactions, shopping patterns, online orders and so on. Unlike personal assistants from previous generations, where the user is expected to be the one who initiates the conversation and turns to the system for recommendations or instructions - Watson Assistant knows how to initiate the conversation, at the right time and in the right context, while adjusting the topic and presenting recommendations tailored to the user's needs.
IBM's Watson Assistant system was not designed just to stand in a certain place in the home or office. It does not respond only to the user's command, and is not satisfied with offering only basic information available to the public. You can access this system and conduct an interaction in speech or writing - while the system constantly learns to get to know the person using it better, builds comprehensive insights about him and helps satisfy his needs and increase his satisfaction.
Watson Assistant is offered through IBM's cloud in a way that allows it to be integrated into a wide and new range of dedicated applications for different fields. Two of these applications have already been designed in depth and are intended for the automotive and hotel and hospitality industries. Companies operating in these sectors can brand the service under their brand name and offer it to customers. Thus, for example, car manufacturers can offer a smart assistant in their cars and hotels can offer guests an assistant that accompanies them and improves the hospitality experience.
Watson Assistant systems in other sectors allow companies, organizations and financial entities to build different types of conversation management capabilities, adapted to their business and their field of activity. The skills and capabilities of the system rely on a wide basket of services already offered in the Watson environment, including conversation management services, speech-to-text conversion and text-to-speech conversion - in order to create a more comprehensive experience.
"People want their personal assistant to be able to do more for them than answer questions or make online purchases. They expect deeper insights that they cannot formulate on their own due to the complexity and the need for information from different sources that must be taken into account," explains Gabi Zodik, global director of IOT technologies at the research laboratory of IBM in Haifa, and VP of Technologies and Development Manager of Watson Laboratories for the consumer sector. "Watson assistant that works in the background regularly takes into account millions of items Information, events and possible situations that may affect us - and time looks ahead to help us overcome obstacles and make our lives easier."
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But when the user leaves the car or the place where the Watson Assistant is, they have to "say goodbye" and that is very sad.
Therefore, the next step will be to embed the Watson Assistant in the personal cellular device, or in the smart watch.