IBM offers up Watson Assistant, its answer to Amazon's Alexa

IBM is hoping to create a new voice assistant for the business world -- and before Amazon can create one first. At its Think conference in Las Vegas, IBM on Tuesday took the wraps off Watson Assistant, a virtual helper it's been developing with its customers for over a year. Don't expect to start saying, "Watson, what's the weather?" or "Watson, play They Might be Giants" to an IBM-branded speaker anytime soon. Instead, Watson Assistant will function as the behind-the-scenes brains for a variety of new digital helpers made by a variety of businesses for your home and in stores, airports, hotels and cars. For example, Watson Assistant is already in use at Munich Airport to power a robot that can tell you directions and gate information.