IBM is throwing its hat into the voice assistant ring, but with what could be a key differentiator over Amazon and Google.
Its new Watson Assistant is geared toward companies as a white-label solution rather than as a product built for consumers.
Watson Assistant, launched last week at THINK 2018, is designed as a technology that can be embedded in any number of “things” – think car, hotel room or meeting space. There’s no set Watson Assistant device like Amazon Echo, so companies can brand and customize the product to their specifications.
Consumers interact with the assistant via voice or text, and the more they interact with it, the smarter it becomes. Watson Assistant can be accessed from multiple locations and can take into account things like where a person is as well as time to make personalized recommendations.
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The technology, delivered through the IBM Cloud, can currently be used by hotels and automakers as in-room and in-car smart assistants, respectively.
However, Watson Assistant’s applications can extend to assist consumers throughout their travel journey. For example, Watson Assistant can check travelers into their hotels as well as pre-outfit rental cars with directions. It can also update hotel rooms with preferences for things like music and temperature and provide keyless entry.
As a measure to secure information, businesses that use Watson Assistant own consumer data. They can create skills, built upon existing Watson Services, such as Watson Conversation Service, Speech to Text and Text to Speech, which can share data around both business/industry and consumer.
Companies signed on to use Watson Assistant so far include Harman, which is developing a digital solution for the Maserati GranCabrio, as well as Munich Airport, Kaon Media, IFTTT and the Royal Bank of Scotland.