IBM CEO says Watson aims to protect clients' data

IBM Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty sees proprietary data combined with artificial intelligence technology as the competitive advantage for companies going forward. When IBM works with clients, it trains a unique version of its artificial intelligence technology, Watson, using proprietary data, and that information creates individual business insights that stay with the customer, Rometty said. That's how Watson is different from its competitors that offer similar services around data analytics and machine learning, she said last week in a speech at the company's World of Watson event in Las Vegas. "We made an important architectural decision for all our clients--all their data, it's their accumulated knowledge," she said. Rometty envisions a future in which all enterprises will add artificial intelligence to help automate business processes, improve productivity and increase sales--and she believes that they're likely to turn to IBM to provide that AI software.