IBM Corp. is, in many respects, wagering its business future on Watson, the well-known technology platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to glean insights from large amounts of unstructured data. In pursuing a path to commercialize Watson, IBM has invested many billions of dollars to build up the business unit and to purchase companies that mesh well with Watson.

How this gamble will play out, given IBM’s current business and structures, was a main topic of discussion during the kickoff to the World of Watson in Las Vegas, NV. John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, discussed these aspects and also where they see value being driven for IBM’s future growth.

Reshaping the innovation curve

Furrier noted that in the seven years he has been covering IBM events, this is the first one where the CEO has presented on stage, which underscores the importance of Watson for IBM’s business. He also noted, “Moore’s Law is not the same driver it used to be … [rather] it’s the combination of AI, mobile and big data that are reshaping the innovation curve,” said Furrier.

Vellante mentioned that John Kelly, the godfather of Watson, said he was a skeptic in 2007, since the previous 20 years had seen so many AI failures. However, the time is now right for AI to crunch the heavy data. For example, in order for a doctor to keep up on the latest in their particular area of expertise, they would have to read 1,500 publications a week. Now, Watson can parse that data, leading to a searchable database for physicians to find the newest information.

Developers are crucial to IBM’s future success

The point was made that for IBM to make money, it can’t go head-to-head with Amazon’s cloud. The have to compete up the stack in high-margin business.

“They’re open-sourced everything, they’re investing heavily in the developer area. … Can they attract and reach the developer community in this cloud to enable companies to be SaaS?” asked Furrier.

Vellante stated, “While some companies may have more advanced AI, IBM is mopping up the floor … with its services and industry focus and its cloud. If it can get traction in AI, it’s going to be so much more ahead of the game.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM World of Watson 2016.

*Disclosure: IBM and other companies sponsor some IBM World of Watson segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE