IBM Corp. announced the launch of Watson Assistant this week, an artificial intelligence agent that will allow enterprises to access stored data via text or voice command. IBM’s new digital assistant joins a growing list of AI-based offerings, such as Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana and Alexa for Business, designed to address data use cases in the enterprise.

The company’s strategy is to drive adoption by showcasing how it uses its own technology within IBM. “What’s an AI enterprise?” mused Inderpal Bhandari (pictured), global chief data officer of IBM. “My role within IBM is to create an AI enterprise within IBM itself, and then use that as a showcase for our customers so they’re able to understand clearly what the use cases are.”

Bhandari spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at the IBM Think event in Las Vegas. They discussed potential uses for enterprise AI and the important role of developers in data management. (* Disclosure below.)

Transforming key processes

IBM’s AI enterprise initiative is designed to transform key processes within the organization. Examples include procurement, supply chain, marketing, research and data.

One use case for IBM cited by Bhandari involves analysis of whether it is dealing with a government-owned entity, since there are important rules to be followed in such situations. External data, news feeds, and a history of what the company has done in the past can be fed into Watson to provide an accurate identification.

“Every subject matter expert in the company should be able to make use of this technology,” Bhandari said. “That’s what the AI enterprise is.”

The successful implementation of AI in enterprise processes will depend heavily on how easily it can be used by developers whose work is often integral to a smoothly functioning operation. “If [developers] have to go off and search for data, then it’s not a productive use of their time,” Bhandari said. “To some extent, you have to bring the data ecosystem to them, and that needs to be part of an AI enterprise.”

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: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE