OREANDA-NEWS. IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled five new ways developers and brands are building with Watson, spanning industries like marketing, retail and entertainment.

Developers are the new "cognitive builders," from seasoned professionals to first-time coders, and IBM is leading the way in providing solutions that simplify and empower that creativity. According to Evans Data, when it comes to advanced technologies, developers are most familiar with cognitive computing, with over eight million developers using it today.[1]

By putting cognitive capabilities directly in the hands of the developer community, IBM is empowering a new generation of "cognitive builders" to create their own AI-enabled apps and businesses. From entrepreneurs to solo innovators, the IBM developer community is tackling challenges across industries as varied as education and environment. For example:

Improving customer engagement: RareCarat is improving customer engagement with their AI-enabled chat bot. Named "Rocky the Artificial Intelligence Jeweler," the bot uses Watson Tradeoff Analytics and Conversation services to help novice buyers through the buying process. The bot makes informed recommendations by tapping into the deep drove of data that Rare Carat has generated over the last four months, including 10 million data points on diamond prices and parameters, as well as more than 500,000 user searches, and more than 50,000 messages the company has exchanged with users.

Building smarter marketing campaigns: Influential, an AI influencer technology and marketing platform, is working with Mazda North American Operations to create an influencer campaign that will use Mazda's customer insights to help select the most relevant influencers to participate in a social media campaign for the new Mazda CX-5. The campaign identifies the personality traits in influencers that match Mazda’s ideal brand advocates, specifically, traits that reflect "Artistic Interests," "Extraversion," and "Excitement."

Creating a safe, kid-focused social network: Dynepic is tapping into Watson to connect kids from around the globe. Called the Internet of Kids, the social platform enables children 13 and under to interact and connect digitally, allowing parents to manage those interactions. The platform relies on Watson's Text to Speech API to help young kids communicate verbally with the app as they're developing their reading and writing skills.

Supporting better decision making for environmental experts: WikiNet is using Watson to help environmental experts decide the best technologies for remediating contaminated sites. Using a combination of Watson services including Retrieve and Rank, Alchemy Language, Watson Knowledge Studio, and Natural Language Classifier; WikiNet analyzes documents from reports, scientific journals and pertinent regulatory agencies to generate site specific remediation technology predictions.

Beyond the brands that are building Watson into their businesses, enterprising individuals are applying cognitive to creative pursuits in industries like entertainment, including:

Creating compelling content: Fred Graver, an Emmy-award winning TV industry veteran and former global head of TV creative at Twitter, has found a unique way to use IBM Watson as part of the character creation process for a new show pilot. In analyzing 850,000 public Twitter profiles with the IBM Watson Personality Insights and Natural Language Understanding APIs through Audiense, a marketing insights and engagement platform, Graver crafted an original character for the pilot likely to resonate with his target audience, based on the audience preferences and personality traits indicated in social media profiles.

Each of these innovators join thousands of developers around the world who are experimenting, exploring and creating with Watson services. IBM's cloud and cognitive services are available via the IBM Watson Developer Cloud on Bluemix with technologies spanning span language, speech, vision and data insights.