In bracing for the advent of the AI era, IBM has focused its efforts on developing AI and cloud application solutions, seeking to explore immense application opportunities ranging from manufacturing, transportation, smart cities, healthcare, and more, according to IBM Japan president Elly Keinan speaking at IBM Think Japan 2018 held June 11-12 in Tokyo.

While PC and Internet have driven two major technological shifts over the past 50 years, artificial intelligence (AI) will drive the third exponential shift in the next 25 years, with Watson's Law, named by IBM after its cognitive computing flagship to emerge on a par with Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law, said IBM chairperson and CEO Ginni Rometty in a previous occasion.

Rometty said that just like the former two definitive laws dealing with exponentials - the exponential growth of transistors in chips as indicated in the Moore's Law, and the value of the network growing exponentially by the number of nodes as defined in the Metcalfe's Law - the Watson's Law also deals with exponentials: the exponential amount of data produced and the exponential learning that can be done from that data.

Statistics show that IBM's cloud and tech service platforms now command the largest revenue contribution ratio at 45%, involving a gross margin of 38.2%. The firm's Watson AI cognitive solutions follow with 22.54% in revenue contribution, with gross margins hitting a high of 76.3%. In the past year, revenues from sales of Watson solutions in the Japan market shot up 7-folds, noted IBM.

The just-concluded event attracted the presence of more than 2,500 customers and industry players, with IBM and its cooperative partners jointly showcasing their latest developments and applications in the sectors of cloud, AI and quantum computing, blockchain, and IoT.

Among major attendees are Japan firms incorporating IBM's Watson AI technological solutions, including East Japan Railway (JR-East), robot brand maker Yaskawa, MUFG Bank and Fujifilm.

Also present at the event, Titan Chia, chief technology officer at Taiwan's CTCB Bank, said that his bank has witnessed up to 92% of credit transfers done online, and therefore the incorporation of AI and blockchain technologies is badly needed to deal with the drastic changes in banking services.

By: DocMemory
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