Divulgación: la mayoría de los proveedores mencionados son clientes del autor.
IBM Think, the company's iconic (and now digital) annual client event, took place this week and was once again reminded of how companies like IBM with in-house video skills and studios do these things better than those that don't. Everyone has repeated themselves, even the most senior leaders; the staging was broadcast quality, the camera angles and sound conveying a sense of competition. The sense of competition from an event seems to transfer to a company's brand, positively affecting sales prospects and valuation. IBM discussed two artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives that could solve a recurring problem with these events, which has to do with personal engagement and optimizing a plan. And that could help drive people to content, both during and after the event, that isn't happening now. The initiatives are related to conversational AI and the Watson assistant.
The two problems of big events
There have been big demonstrations of companies like Nvidia using its graphics capability to build and then deconstruct the stage for a CEO keynote, with Dell presenting a wide range of sessions on broad topics like work-life balance, Microsoft and IBM. using high-quality internal resources to produce an event. But there are also pending questions. The two problems that seem to be recurring are individual engagement, where people feel like someone in the company cares what they think, and agenda setting. And, with the exception of the Nvidia event, there was a glaring lack of fixes. Certainly, some companies have products that are not suitable for organizing an event. However, for companies that make workstations, media servers, conference room solutions, and graphics tools, their products could and should enhance your events. The AI tools that IBM should have introduced are the ones I mentioned above because if people use them successfully, they are more likely to buy them in the future.
Conversational AI
IBM has one of the most robust conversational AI platforms on the market. Most of us have speakers and microphones that we use for our Teams, WebEx, and Zoom meetings, making it easy to join a process that allows, in this case IBM, to use AI. Conversational to create a personalized program of events. Both through experience and through the registration questionnaire, IBM knows a lot about the attendees and could use it to pre-populate an initial agenda. The user can then engage conversational AI to handle conflicts, bypass pre-existing calendar events, and even schedule post-event time to display content that might have been missed. This not only allows the user to see how they can apply AI to their own interactions with customers, but also how it could, at scale, allow them to interact with customers interpersonally without using a human. And press participants and analysts, assuming the AI works well, could talk about it from experience, which is much more powerful than just talking about it in the abstract.
Assistant Watson
This technology came about when I spoke on a panel about using Watson Assistant to help students in their careers. One of the other panelists described his experience with Apple Siri and actually called me an idiot in his final comments (which I found boring). But his impression of digital assistants, like most of us, comes from using versions of Apple, Google and Microsoft, not Watson, which is a different beast altogether. I had once hoped that the Apple/IBM alliance would result in a Watson backend for Siri that would make Siri an actual digital assistant instead of an industry joke. Most of us use non-AI assistants; are text-to-speech tools that connect to search engines with voice scripts. I use the Amazon Echo a lot myself, but it's not in Watson's class either. Watson is a true AI that gets a response from information it has been trained to analyze, making it much more than just a verbal interface to web search. One of the common problems, especially for those who ask a lot of questions, is getting answers quickly. Sometimes I get answers in real time; most of the time i get ignored or by the time i get an answer, days or weeks later, i have lost interest in the question. Think about the audience: some are top executives and decision makers. Ignoring their questions, or not answering them quickly, will certainly degrade the relationship with these leaders.
Envelope
Large-scale digital events have gotten much better over time, but engagement still suffers. IBM has two technologies that could enhance your own events, and they seem particularly capable of improving the attendee experience. Conversational AI could be used to better engage with audiences, optimize their time, and ensure they attend the most relevant sessions, during or after an event. Watson Assistant could take over the primary task of answering questions for those who don't get an answer in person, ensuring a more positive experience for the participant. Ultimately, IBM is one of the few companies that can make virtual events far more useful and productive than they are now, and significantly better than the hugely expensive in-person events that most of us would like to avoid in the future. future.
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