IBM’s Watson AI is expanding across the globe and across industries

The customer base for IBM’s Watson cognitive computing technology is expanding as companies from an increasingly wide variety of industries start to incorporate the service into their businesses. Watson is being used by organizations in 25 countries, including Australia, England, Thailand, Canada and Spain, according to IBM.

Armed with $1 billion in financing, an unprecedented degree of autonomy within IBM, and an entire Manhattan city block, IBM launched its media blitz to show the world its vision of a future enhanced and enabled by Watson, its artificial intelligence technology. So today 28 reporters convened on the fifth floor of 51 Astor Place with the IBM Sherlocks who would manage Watson in order to get a taste of the “Watson Experience.” Amid a heady mix of high-tech, flat-paneled display wizardry and more than a little razzle-dazzle of Hollywood showmanship, executives from the Watson program laid out, more specifically, their vision for the future of artificial intelligence’s big brother.