The Next Logical Step Past Analytics Is Cognitive Computing

Many people and companies seem to think of "cognitive computing" as an area separate from analytics. Most large organizations today have significant analytical initiatives underway, but they think of the cognitive space as being an exotic science project. One executive told me, "We have no desire to win Jeopardy," an allusion, of course, to the IBM Watson project from 2011. But cognitive computing is not just about Watson, and it's not an exotic science project. In fact, I'd argue that cognitive computing is a logical extension of analytics work.