One year ago, IBM Corp. CEO Ginni Rometty stood up at the World of Watson conference and told the company that they were now to consider themselves a cognitive business. Since then, IBM’s cognitive computing platform Watson has made big waves in the world, earning much attention and acclaim for Big Blue.

Nancy Pearson, VP of Marketing, Cognitive Business, at IBM, joined John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during the World of Watson in Las Vegas, NV. They discussed new ways to market and deliver cognitive business, as well as plans for the future.

The discussion started out on the energy and excitement at this year’s World of Watson. Furrier pointed out that more of IBM’s parts and pieces are coming together now, technology intersecting with business value; but now, there’s also a social change, a new dimension added in.

Pearson agreed and said, “That’s what happens in the cognitive space, much more personalization, creating a lot more trust and learning. We’re impacting professions, we’re transforming industries with cognitive, the art of the possible. It gets people engaged on both sides of their brains.”

Making a difference in lives

Knowing that there are some great Watson case studies, Vellante asked Pearson for one of her favorites.

“Medtronic. We have a great example of leveraging patients for their type one diabetes, and how Watson fundamentally changed the lives of patients. The majority of care for diabetes happens between doctor visits. The most recent Medtronic announcement was SugarIQ, related to type two diabetes. It will teach people how to [better manage their health and] change their lives for the better,” said Pearson.

Earlier this month, the news show 60 Minutes featured Watson and cognitive thinking. Vellante complimented Pearson on this this huge PR win and asked how IBM pulled it off.

“The team has a really strong plan to take the progress we’re making and put it out into the market,” said Pearson. She also said that to make sure they were on the right path, they went to 600 clients and partners, of all sizes, who are using Watson to see if IBM was meeting expectations. They found that 62 percent of the participants were not only satisfied, they were pleasantly surprised with the outcomes, exceeding their expectations.

Future plans for IBM’s cognitive business

The discussion moved to plans for the future and where IBM would like to take cognitive from here. Pearson said there is going to be an increased focus on involving developers as IBM continues to build out its APIs, including a Watson Developer Conference in San Francisco that will be held November 9-10, 2016.

In addition to the other gatherings where IBM hosts or is a participant, they will be branching out into more and more AI-type conferences. She also said, “We continue to talk to clients; we have strong sales teams and consultancy workshops.”

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