EXPRESS COMPUTER | APRIL, 2017
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COVER STORY Making sense of unstructured data Watson’s ability to crunch huge volumes of data makes it well suited for a market like India, where the scale, velocity and diversity of data is much much larger, faster and complex than other countries. “80 percent of all data is dark and unstructured. It cannot be read or used by the hitherto computing systems. By 2020, that number will be 93 percent. Cognitive computing has the ability to read and make sense of this gigantic amount of data that was being wasted so far,” explains Dr Prashant Pradhan, Chief Developer Advocate, IBM India / South Asia. With the cloud as the platform, Watson can be made available to enterprises quickly and cost effectively. Says Dr Pradhan, “With Watson, every digital application, product and process can understand, reason and learn. Our platform is the cloud. So cognitive is the only way to ingest and extract value from the new natural resource of data in all its forms, so that it can be turned into competitive advantage and societal value. And cloud is the platform on which these solutions are designed, built, tested and deployed in the world.” Democratizing expertise Unlike traditional analytics solutions, a cognitive solution understands reasons and learns while interacting with humans. It understands data, structured and unstructured, text-based or sensory – in context and meaning, at astonishing speeds and volumes. It has the ability to form hypotheses, make considered arguments and prioritize recommendations to help humans make better decisions. However, the biggest differentiator is the ability to learn. It ingests and accumulates data and insight from every interaction continuously. Consider for example, a case, where Watson could correctly diagnose a 60-year old woman’s rare form of cancer within ten minutes – a feat that could not be achieved by the existing doctors. Watson sifted through 20 million cancer research papers. Additionally, the machine looked up several medical cases and millions of research papers. While human beings are experts in certain fields, their ability to process large volumes of data is limited. Through the ability to look at multiple sources of data and arrive at an inference is a complicated task for humans, a machine equipped with cognitive capabilities like Watson can do this with ease, and this can only improve over time. As the solution is trained and not programmed, by experts who enhance, scale and improve their expertise, it gets better over time. For example, it can help doctors diagnose accurately by looking at a huge number of parameters that are unique to every individual. Karan Bajwa gives the example of Manipal Hospitals, which is using Watson to deliver personalized treatment for cancer patients. While cases of cancer are rising rapidly, India faces an acute shortage of oncologists. Press reports estimate that India has only one oncologist per 1600 new cancer patients. This is where a technology like Watson can make a huge difference, and benefit from the knowledge gained by Watson by treating similar cases across the world. “Think about the corpus of oncology knowledge developed in partnership from the top oncologists at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Manipal Hospitals can now leverage this and achieve the leapfrog effect which we critically need, to serve a lot of patients where oncology expertise is tough to find,” states Bajwa. As the system gets trained with more patient data, the expectation is that the
treatment recommendations will improve A team of 12 oncologists from Manipal significantly. Says Nandkishor Dhomne, CIO, Hospitals, who have been trained to use this Manipal Hospitals, “Our expected aim is to solution help the patients in exact diagnosis ensure that our doctors with minimal effort and administer treatment accordingly. Watson would have a highly integrated solution that can understand the case and highlight a list of would allow access to Watson potential treatments with a percentage rank of recommendations for each patient. certitude. The doctor then reviews the list and Specifically, all demographic information, makes the final treatment decision in consult laboratory, radiology and histopathology with the patient. reports for a patient are automatically pulled by the Personalized HIS system and sent to context-based services Watson. Hence on a single Today businesses and Through the click, the doctor can open the organizations in 45 Watson system with all ability to look at countries across 20 different required information preare using Watson multiple sources industries populated.” to build cognitive of data and arrive capabilities into their IBM Watson is now used by oncologists at six locations in at an inference is products, applications, the Manipal Hospitals processes and offerings. a complicated network to provide Many retail customers, task for humans, for example are using information and insights to physicians to help them cognitive computing to a machine identify personalized, provide personalized, equipped with evidence-based cancer care context based, offers to cognitive options across India. Manipal various customers. One oncologists can access IBM capabilities like example is North Face, Watson for Oncology for which has launched a new Watson can do patients with breast, interactive online shopping this with ease colorectal and lung cancer experience powered by IBM that are registered with a Watson. Customers can now Manipal facility pan-India. use natural conversation as
they shop online via an intuitive, dialog-based recommendation engine, receiving outerwear recommendations that are tailored to their needs. Says Prativa Mohapatra, Vice President, Watson, IBM India/South Asia, “We believe that organizations have just begun to scratch the surface of cognitive computing capabilities. From improving customer engagement to enhancing research capabilities that identify new life-saving medical treatments, the potential value is boundless.” Across the globe, IBM is working with clients in financial services to apply cognitive to better manage risk and provide personalized guidance and investment options. In India, organizations like DHFL and Yes Bank, are testing out the potential of Watson. The potential for cognitive technology is immense and IBM’s clients in India are embedding cognitive technologies as a part of their digital transformation journey. “We are seeing organizations adopting cognitive technologies for specific use cases, applicable to a particular function or business issue. For example, scaling expertise in customer service operations, assisting faster on-boarding of new employees, enhancing organization process and methods accessible in a human and intuitive way, using deeper personality
India is getting digitized at scale, thanks to initiatives such as Digital India. Cognitive is the “enrichment” layer on top of this digital foundation - and the rich data generated by it - that enhances services, customer engagement, and delivers immensely valuable insights Karan Bajwa Managing Director IBM India
GLOBAL USE CASES FOR IBM WATSON Company
How Watson is being used
Pearson
Pearson and IBM are innovating with Watson APIs, education-specific diagnostics and remediation capabilities. Students will be able to dialogue with Watson in real time by asking questions on a particular topic. In another scenario, Watson will be able to search through an expanded set of education resources to retrieve relevant information to answer the student's question. During the dialogue with the student, Watson will constantly assess the student's responses and guide them with hints, feedback, explanations and identify common misconceptions. Watson also will be able to support the student by answering their questions, showing how the new knowledge they gain relates to their own existing knowledge and, finally, asking them questions to check their understanding. Students can respond in natural language to questions Watson asks, and Watson will use the student's responses to provide help, show areas they have improved and where they still need to work on.
Pfizer
IBM and Pfizer have announced a collaboration that will utilize IBM Watson for Drug Discovery to help accelerate Pfizer's research in immuno-oncology, an approach to cancer treatment that uses the body's immune system to help fight cancer. Pfizer is one of the first organizations worldwide to deploy Watson for Drug Discovery, and the first to customize the cloud-based cognitive tool – tapping in to Watson's machine learning, natural language processing, and other cognitive reasoning technologies to support the identification of new drug targets, combination therapies for study, and patient selection strategies in immuno-oncology. Immunotherapies, which modify a patient's immune system to recognize and target cancer cells using a combination of vaccines, immunomodulators, and small/large molecules, are reshaping the field of oncology. Oncology researchers at Pfizer will use Watson for Drug Discovery to analyze massive volumes of disparate data sources, including licensed and publicly available data as well as Pfizer's proprietary data. With this new tool, Pfizer researchers will analyze and test hypotheses to generate evidence-based insights for real-time interaction. The customized technology can also support efficient safety assessments.
Panasonic
Panasonic and IBM have announced a digital concierge service to enhance consumer experiences and expectations while traveling. The Panasonic Digital Concierge applies Watson and IBM Cloud to a digital mirror designed for hotels and other hospitality industry customers. Using the digital mirror, hotel guests can have a spoken dialog with Panasonic's Digital Concierge to quickly obtain a host of information about the hotel and its services, entertainment and shopping opportunities, transportation, weather, and other topics related to their stay.
H&R Block
H&R Block's tax professionals at approximately 10,000 branch offices across the U.S. will use a new, consumer-facing technology that incorporates IBM Watson - the largest deployment of Watson in retail locations. The new technology will help H&R Block tax professionals deliver the best outcome for each client's unique tax situation. This collaboration between H&R Block and IBM represents the first time Watson will be applied to tax preparation. The field of tax preparation involves massive volumes of data, including a federal tax code with more than 74,000 pages and thousands of yearly tax law changes, all of which impacts a client's tax outcome. As part of the first phase of the collaboration, H&R Block and IBM development teams trained Watson in the language of tax, first applying the technology to the thousands of questions and topics discussed during the return filing process. The result is a new cognitive experience for filers offered for the first time this tax season at H&R Block retail locations. The solution uses cloud-based Watson services to understand context, interpret intent and draw connections between clients' statements and relevant areas of their return.
Lotte Group
Lotte Group, one of Korea's top five companies, will use Watson technologies to maximize insights from the huge amount of structured and unstructured customer data collected through its various channels, including the Lotte Members program, deriving valuable learnings about customer preferences and product feedback. Lotte and IBM will team to create an 'Intelligent Shopping Advisor' for customers and an internal employee 'Cognitive Business Decision Advisor' for the Group's retail affiliates. The 'Intelligent Shopping Adviser' will be first introduced to Lotte's department stores. Customers will have their own virtual personal assistant offering help from product recommendations, shop location guidance, to support for online pickup service. Customers will benefit from greater convenience and an enhanced customer experience as they interact, in natural language, with a service that understands the questions asked, in the context of the individual shopper's needs. For example, a shopper can ask a question like "my 12-year-old daughter's birthday is next week. She likes reading and fashion, what is popular now and how can I purchase this gift?" The service will be designed to offer tailored recommendations, transaction support, advance notifications for customer's important life events and learn to recognize an individual's interests. With relevant choices and purchase knowledge, customers will not need to search and save their time and resources