The power of machine learning has arrived for the masses, and it comes in the form of a cloud-based platform called IBM Watson Data Platform.

Announced today in Las Vegas at the IBM World of Watson conference, the platform promises to let businesses get more valuable insights, as well as interpret and collaborate with data.

“Watson Data Platform applies cognitive assistance for creating machine learning models, making it far faster to get from data to insight,” said Bob Picciano, SVP of Information & Analytics.

“It also provides one place to access machine learning services and languages, so that anyone, from an app developer to the Chief Data Officer, can collaborate seamlessly to make sense of data, ask better questions, and more effectively operationalize insight.”

#IBM Picciano:announcing #Watson Data Platform for AI-powered decision making. "We're the only company doing this." #IBMWoW #makedatasimple

— IBM Data, AI & Automation (@IBMData) October 25, 2016

Harness Collaboration

The IBM Watson Data Platform uses machine learning to intelligently and automatically build models from structured and unstructured data.

Citing a survey by Harvard Business Review, IBM says 80 percent of companies struggle with allowing employees to collaborate using common data, which in turn impacts a company’s ability to drive business results.

Businesses are siloed. People spend too much time collecting and then cleansing data, or they lack a consistent view of data across departments.

SVP @IBMAnalytics @bobpicciano at #ibmwow announces the Watson Data Platform to unleash the power of data.@IBM #DigitalTransformation #IoT pic.twitter.com/WZJgbfchtW

— Roberto Villa (@RobertoVjlla) October 25, 2016

That changes, IBM says, with the announcement of IBM Watson Data Platform, as different areas of the business will have access to a dashboard tailored to their specific needs and speciality.

“Access to data insights are no longer heavily dependent on IT,” Picciano said.

Insight will be the new currency, measuring the success of a company's #IT systems, says @bobpicciano at #ibmwow pic.twitter.com/kuvefmjSQO

— Tech Ed Canada (@TechEdCA) October 25, 2016

SQL, Python, R, Java, and Scala are currently integrated into the system, as well as more than 20 ecosystem partners including RStudio, and APIs from Keen IO.

Watson Data Platform available on an open source foundation built on Spark. #ibmwow pic.twitter.com/UiycgMa6eT

— IBM Consulting (@ibmconsulting) October 25, 2016

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