The new analytics tools require less technical expertise than traditional analytics, making them a good fit for use by sales and marketing, R&D, customer service, and throughout the enterprise, IBM says.
IBM named the new analytics service after its Watson artificial intelligence system that earned notoriety for winning the Jeopardy TV game show. Now, IBM is promoting Watson Analytics through a “freemium” model to help attract more clients.
The initial release of Watson Analytics offers a full range of self-service analytics, including access to easy-to-use data refinement and data warehousing services. These tools make it easier for business users to acquire, prepare and interpret large quantities of data. The system also provides better analysis tools than simple spreadsheets can offer, and produces data-driven visualizations based on natural language queries. Companies can upload data free of charge to IBM’s platform.
