In today’s privacy-sensitive climate, when a large technology company is in position to gather a significant amount of data from a client’s business operation, the next question is fairly obvious. How exactly will that data be used?

Although IBM Corp. is not dependent on a business model that amasses a ton of data so that someone other than the client can benefit from it, the company strives to make sure its data-usage policies are crystal clear.

“The client’s data is their data,” said Inderpal Bhandari (pictured), global chief data officer at IBM. “It’s going to remain their data. We will not make use of that data outside of what the client actually authorizes us to do. We go even further and say that insights drawn from that data also belong to the client.”

Bhandari spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and John Furrier (@furrier), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think event in San Francisco. They discussed how intelligence tools are transforming business and the competitive advantage offered by data analytics. (* Disclosure below.)

AI is transforming business

Controls governing the use and management of data have become especially important as tools such as artificial intelligence become more widely adopted throughout the enterprise. AI is rapidly transforming business operations, as demonstrated by the focus of announcements released this week by IBM during its Think conference.

In addition to data management, IBM has been focused on ensuring that it has a strong AI story to tell, both internally and externally. “When I came on board, one of the promises I actually made to our clients was that we were going to make IBM itself into an AI enterprise and then use those lessons to help our clients make their AI enterprises as well,” Bhandari said.

This focus on AI has provided IBM with a window into the competitive dynamic associated with leveraging intelligent tools to gain an edge on competitors. “The awareness around AI has increased tremendously,” Bhandari said. “Clients now generally don’t question that they need to go down that route. They understand that there’s a competitive advantage now and they’re in danger of being left behind.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think event. (* Disclosure: IBM Corp. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE