A Walk In The Cloud

IBM is becoming more of a cloud and cognitive enterprise by moving towards as-a-service software and related service

- HARICHANDAN ARAKALI

To help governments across the world get credible information on Covid-19 and answer people’s queries related to the coronavirus, IBM in April launched its ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’. It sits on the company’s public cloud and brings together multiple technologies, including natural language processing and artificial intelligence (AI) search capabilities, to understand and respond to questions about Covid-19.

“The coronavirus pandemic has altered nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives. IBM developed the Watson Assistant for Citizens to provide an AI-powered virtual agent that helps governments deliver accurate information to citizens, without overwhelming contact centres where human agents are needed to help those who need them,” says Gargi Dasgupta, director of IBM Research India and CTO of IBM India, South Asia. “To introduce this offering in India, IBM Research trained Watson Assistant to answer queries in English and Hindi.”

Watson Assistant for Citizens taps available data from external sources, including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other government sources, for prevention and treatment-related guidance, citizen welfare schemes in India, as well as global resources such as the World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IBM is delivering this service across the US as well as engaging with organisations in countries such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain, among others.