IBM Think: Opening Keynote with Ginni Rometty

In her opening IBM Think 2018 keynote, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty started by thanking the band and all the 30,000+ attendees. This is a moment that happens about every 25 years when business and technology change at the same time. It has the potential to change everything. In the past 60 years, change occurred that allowed business to change exponentially.

1. Moores law (Intel and chips)
2. Metcalf’s law where the value of a network is equal to the square of all the nodes on the network (Facebook).

Now AI and exponential learning…perhaps Watson’s law…

Who can win? Many can win. There won’t be just a few winners.

Fact: 20% of the world’s data is searchable.

That means that your company can use the data you have to be an incumbent disruptor.

Inflection Point for Business

Time to go on the offense. You can do three things:

1. Leverage digital platforms
   1. You will leverage others platforms.
   2. You’ll build some of your own. Orange Bank runs 50% of their business on Watson.
2. Put it with your people
   1. Man and machine always do better than without each other.
   2. Watson is used in a banks email response. They answer 65% of emails and customer satisfaction improved
   3. Watson for Oncology is now up to 150 hospitals with 150,000 patients.
3. Put learning in every process you have
   1. Put AI through every process you have.
   2. VW has a new car called the vertis. Watson embedded for problem diagnosis
   3. HR is a great place to start. IBM started with candidate. They ask permission to get data.   They can predict attrition, salary points, etc.

Belief: Data belongs to the creator. IBM want to provide service but not own the data.

Jobs: This is different. Jobs will change. We all need to prepare the world to have these new skills. It’s not blue collar or white collar. IBM coined the term “new collar.” Perhaps get students into a six-year high school with them prepared to deal with these new skills.

Inclusion: Make it a reality. IBM is the only company to get an “inclusion of Women” award four times.

Impact: Technology means nothing if you don’t change how the work is done. Everything needs to be AI ready, extendable, secure, etc. Make it work wherever you are.

Announcement: New Power9 in the cloud. It trains AI 4X faster than anything else.

Announcement: Expansion of IBM Cloud Private for Data. This will allow you to ingest 250 billion events per day into your own cloud.

Business and Professional AI understands business. It has to learn on small amounts of data and protect your insights. Last year they doubled Watson users.

Announcement:  Watson and Apple will integrate. Apple API will have access to Watson natively.

Announcement: Watson Assistant. This is pre-trained Watson for automotive, hospitality, banking, insurance. Notice the industry expertise.

IBM has invested in changing skills in block chain, risk and compliance, cyber security, etc. It’s a new world and you need new skills.