Meet Watson - How Artificial Intelligence Can Even Make Compliance Cognitive And Cool

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I keep telling everyone I know about the remarkable innovations I saw at IBM World of Watson 2016 conference, held from Oct. 24 to 27 at beautiful Mandalay Bay, where I was among the 17,000 attendees. As I was "welcomed to the World of Watson," I learned that Watson (yes, the computer that was on Jeopardy) is IBM's researchers' vision "to design an intelligent system that brings man and machine together to create a better world." If that sounds like a utopian fantasy, prepare to be amazed at how real that vision has become: Watson is changing how doctors cure disease, how companies analyze their social media footprints, and how financial services firms adapt to ever-changing regulations. I could write an entire book on all that Watson has to offer, but my focus here is on Watson's ability to help financial services firms meet compliance demands more efficiently and with less cost – a much needed innovation as firms spend $99 billion on addressing compliance, thus limiting their ability to invest in growth, according to Marc Andrews, VP of Industry Analytics Solutions for IBM. If you're scratching your head at why regulatory compliance costs are so high, picture this: Linda, a trader at a high-profile brokerage firm, receives a bad performance review from her supervisor.