Big data analytics and artificial intelligence come to the SMB as MasterCard integrates IBM's Watson

Small and medium sized businesses are being targeted by IBM and MasterCard as they look to bring big data analytics insights to better understand their markets and consumers. A partnership has been formed by the two companies that sees MasterCard integrate IBM Watson Analytics into its platform, along with its own anonymised transaction data that is gathered through the payment company's Local Market Intelligence. This combination will bring artificial intelligence to its payments platform. The aim is to be able to offer SMBs insights on revenue, market share, customer demographics and competitors in a particular location and across multiple locations. The problem being tackled is that smaller merchants often don't have the resources to maximise data insights.