Last week saw the IBM Chief Data Officer Strategy Summit, Spring 2016 – organised by Corinium Intelligence– take place in San Francisco. Now in its fourth instalment, the IBM CDO Summit once again brought together over 150 Chief Data Officers (CDOs), Chief Analytics Officers (CAOs), Chief Data Scientists (CDSs) and senior-level data and analytics executives to discuss their latest challenges and innovations.
What’s interesting is that, for companies partnering with Corinium to run private events, the pace of improvement never cease to amaze. Having had the privilege to organise these summits for the past 2 years alongside IBM, it’s remarkable how far conversations have developed since we started in Boston in September 2014. Back then, discussions centred on defining data leadership, change management, becoming a CDO and the importance of Data Governance. Whilst all still important topics, we’ve since gone on to discuss advanced analytics, data innovation and products, data-driven apps and c-suite relations of numerous variations. Clearly, things are advancing and at quite a pace.
Cognitive Business is Here. Now.
What stood out most for me this year, amongst conversations about NBA Championships, Ford Mustangs and a quite brilliant debate on ‘Governance versus Innovation’, was the buzz around Cognitive Business.
No longer restricted to sci-fi movies or R&D department pipe dreams, cognitive technologies are here and they are going to impact the future of your business. This is a real world paradigm shift.
The importance of cognitive technologies is perhaps best evidenced by the $1bn launch of the IBM Watson Group and, later, the Cognitive Business Solutions Group in January 2014. As IBM’s CEO, Ginni Rometty, said at the time: “For those of you who watch us, we don’t create new units very often. But when we do, it is because we see something that is a major, major shift that we believe in.”
Moreover, cognitive technology is not confined to just Machine Learning, it now encompasses computer vision, robotics, speech recognition, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and various other disciplines.
On last week’s Panel Discussion, ‘Delivering on Innovation – What is a Cognitive Business and What Does it Mean for You?’, moderated by Neil Isford, IBM’s General Manager for Cognitive Solutions, we heard how Hilton Worldwide, Under Armour and @Walmart Labs are all utilising cognitive technologies to transform their businesses.
Whether it is was through Hilton’s well-publicised robotic concierge, Connie (powered by IBM Watson), UnderArmour’s unrivalled food and drink database as part of their MyFitnessPal app or Walmart’s quest to understand consumer online preferences based on offline purchases, cognitive business is happening and it’s happening right now.
Whether it is was through Hilton’s well-publicised robotic concierge, Connie, UnderArmour’s MyFitnessPal app or Walmart’s quest to understand online preferences based on offline purchases, cognitive business is happening and it’s happening right now.
It doesn’t stop there either. Many of the most advanced companies, including our panelists, are constantly searching for ever-more innovative ways to improve their products and services for their customer or identify new markets or revenue streams. One memorable example of the former is Hilton’s quest to offer an entirely personalised menu to each customer, based on their previous purchases. For example, if you always order the Club Sandwich with a Coke in San Francisco but the Caesar Salad and water in New York, your Chicago menu will be formed on this information. At least that’s the aim…
Are You Ready For Your Cognitive Journey?
However, not all organisations are quite ready to begin their cognitive business journey. As one delegate pointed out, cognitive technologies are only as good as the data they utilise. To truly be successful, you need to ensure that your data is of high quality and sufficient depth and breadth. Without such data, you leave yourself exposed to inaccurate findings and incorrect decisions.
What is clear, though, is that for the most progressive data organisations, the future is bright and the future is cognitive.
Click on the link to learn more about the IBM CDO Strategy Summit, Spring and the IBM CDO Strategy Summit, Fall.
To find out more about Corinium’s work with IBM and how your organisation can partner with us to deliver major events, please click here.
“Corinium has been absolutely wonderful to work with and there are two areas that compel me to continue doing business with them: 1) They do THE best job of recruiting the target audience of any event vendor I’ve encountered and 2) they are incredibly adaptable to changing situations. Both of these are absolutely critical to pulling off major events like ours.“ – Cortnie Abercrombie, IBM
By Adam Plom:
Adam Plom is the Global Head of Content for the CDO Forum. Adam has organised numerous CDO Forums in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and recently featured in a Financier Worldwide magazine interview, titled: The Evolution of the CDO, as well as co-authoring The Chief Data Officer Forum Review. For enquiries, email: adam.plom@coriniumintelligence.com.
