Krista: Thanks Ted for joining us today. Today we're talking about practical uses of cognitive technology.

Krista: So are there some practical enterprise uses for cognitive technology today?

Ted: Certainly. Yeah, it's been exciting to watch. So for me, the first thing I'd say is I really think there's applications for cognitive computing in all industries. I'd argue that anyone who says or classifies a whole industry as not ready or not adaptable probably hasn't followed the space, or is really up to speed on what can be done there.

Ted: So from then, I look to big business, and what are the big challenges that they have to solve in any given year? There are a number of companies that really will have five to ten big business decisions that they make in a given year that are going to have a significant impact on their bottom line. Will this drug or this medical treatment actually impact this particular health ailment? Is this the right place to drill for oil? What should we charge this class of insurance subscribers?

Ted: So these are big decisions that companies make year in and year out. Getting it right is the difference between the winners and the losers in certain categories. So not that the cognitive operation replaces the existing system that's in place, but the way I look at it is ... cognitive decision and cognitive guidance should have a seat at the table. Should make recommendations, and you should run through those really big decisions, all the different tools you have at your disposal to make the best answer, not just the team, but also the cognitive operation that recommends based on larger sets of data.

Krista: So these all seem like really big, boil the ocean kind of problems. Is there a place where people can get started in their enterprise with cognitive?

Ted: Yeah. That's a fair counter. So there are also problems that can be solved or operations that go on within an organization that if done with the cognitive operation at scale, can have a significant business impact.

Ted: So if you look at some more transactional or easy-to-digest type of problems, things like processing a change of beneficiary form, for instance, or approving a loan, or even responding to tech support questions. These are good cognitive operations, they are definable, discernible, down into a smaller space that you can inject a cognitive operation into part or all, when it has the right answers to. But if done at significant scale, can have a dramatic business impact.

Krista: Well thanks Ted for joining us and giving us the practical uses of cognitive. You can check out more videos on cognitive and digital transformation here on our channel.