IBM has launched Watson Assistant, a new service that allows companies to build voice-activated virtual assistants for their own products.
Watson Assistant can be loaded onto cars and smart home devices and can be utilised in hospitality applications for example.
Similar to the Alexa and Siri interfaces, the Watson Assistant can be personalised and accessed via text or voice. Clients can train assistants using their own datasets and another advantage is that each integration keeps data private.
Additional capabilities can be utilised if the user allows multiple Watson-powered applications to share data through IBM Cloud.
An example scenario from IBM is that Watson Assistant can automatically check you into your hotel and make sure your rental car (so long as it has a Watson-powered console) is ready as soon as you walk out the airport. The car’s console can also suggest locations to visit en route to your hotel. If the hotel uses a smart assistant powered by IBM’s AI, then it can automatically tweak the temperature and lighting settings in your room based on your preferences.
Picture: Erik John Ricardo
