Andrew Nusca over at ZD Net has a short but interesting article about Apple’s Siri vs IBM’s Watson. I’ve been a fan for voice recognition for a while and have even managed to train my Android phone to mostly understand me when I use voice recognition to call a friend or search for a term. By all account’s Siri does even better but neither can hold a candle to what IBM’s been able to do. Andrew puts it way better than I can though.
The most obvious place these two sets of technologies converge? The workplace. The consumerization of the enterprise is well underway, and the most obvious place where those collide — your brought-from-home mobile device that you use for work and play — is already in your pocket.
“Siri, how many ZDNet readers unsubscribed from our newsletters, on average, over the last 18 months?
“Siri, how’s our EBITDA looking? Are we on track?”
Or if you’re in healthcare: “Siri, what are the pros and cons of patient 67 taking tigecycline?”
Or if you’re in the public sector: “Siri, which intersections have had the most collisions in the last six months?”
You get the point. We’re still several years off from Watson-on-the-go, but the possibilities are tantalizing. The business implications? Even better.
Before the quote, Andrew spent some time setting up how the two are different and where IBM is headed. It’s true that IBM focuses on the enterprise and the workplace but there are some very interesting things about to happen.
