IBM Corp. today unveiled a new analytics platform and a tool to create virtual agents more easily, both based on its famous Jeopardy!-winning Watson “cognitive” computing system.

The company introduced the new services at its second annual World of Watson conference in Las Vegas, which opened today. IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty is betting much of IBM’s future on Watson, which uses machine learning and other artificial intelligence software to apply smarts to a wide range of industries. At a conference last week, she called Watson IBM’s “moonshot.” SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE is conducting live insider interviews today and Wednesday. (* Disclosure below.)

Collaborative analytics

The first new service that IBM unveiled at the event is a cloud-based environment called the Watson Data Platform where analytics professionals can collaborate to process unstructured information. It packs connectors for importing business records, data cleansing functionality designed to help users separate the the signal from the noise and integration with a wide range of number-crunching tools. Each member of a business intelligence team can deploy the software that is best suited for their particular skills.

Among the supported offerings is a new “self-service” machine learning service that IBM unveiled alongside the Watson Data Platform this morning. According to the launch announcement, it’s capable of automatically recommending what algorithm should be used to analyze a given set of records based on its contents. The model is selected from a pool of pre-implemented formulas that IBM claims is the most comprehensive of its kind in the industry. Moreover, the company claims that users don’t require any special machine learning expertise to take advantage of the tool’s capabilities.

The learning service is one of several analytics solutions that Watson Data Platform offers on launch. IBM says that it also provides access to software from more than 20 partners along with support for SQL, Python, R and a number of other languages that are commonly used in the data science world.

Chatbots and apps

The other major product announcement that IBM made this morning is the introduction of Watson Virtual Agent, a cloud-based tool for developing conversational applications. It provides the same basic value proposition as the drag-and-drop chatbot service that rival Oracle Corp. unveiled last month, but claims to pack a much more extensive feature set. The main highlight is a repository of “pre-trained cross-industry” knowledge that virtual agents can parse to become more proficient at their task, whether it’s answering support requests or handling purchases.

Virtual Agent complements the existing natural language processing capabilities in IBM’s Watson Developer Cloud. Organizations can create a conversational frontend for their bots using the suite’s Conversation API, provide voice support via Watson Text to Speech and tap the Watson Tone Analyzer to make the automated responses sound more authentic. It’s then possible to deploy the finished product in a variety of channels ranging from websites to social media.

According to IBM, organizations can now embed artificial intelligence in their iOS projects thanks to newly added integration between Watson and its MobileFirst development toolkit. Big Blue sees the functionality coming handy in a wide range of situations. A cable company, for instance, could use it to develop a scheduling service that tells technicians where they’re needed. And Big Blue itself plans to incorporate Watson’s capabilities into the business apps that it developed in collaboration with Apple Inc. as part of their MobileFirst for iOS initiative.

The road from here

The newly expanded feature roster showcased at today’s event goes several steps beyond the capabilities that Watson possessed at the time of its famous Jeopardy! debut in 2011. But though the platform can now interact with humans in real-time and analyze unprecedented amounts of information, IBM believes that the journey is just beginning. Senior Vice President John Kelly, who spearheaded the creation of Watson, laid out a vision for the platform in his opening keynote Tuesday morning.

“The technology is accelerating faster and faster every day,” he said. “In about a decade from now – and it may occur before that – I think in some areas Watson will be able to predict the future. Watson will begin to reason, begin to build a model of the world and begin to predict.”

The executive said Watson is powering predictive analytics services in the healthcare industry, where it’s used by Medronic PLC to give diabetes patients advanced warning they’re about to suffer from a hypoglycemic episode. Kelly believes that many more such use cases will emerge over time as artificial intelligence technology continues to improve.

“I think we will see Watson start predict human events, illness and other natural events,” he said. “In the end, it will be Watson working together with humans to make better decisions.”

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is the media partner at World of Watson. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial oversight of content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Image via IBM