International Business Machines : 5 Things to Know About IBM’s Watson Orchestrate

May 10, 2021

Businesses are rapidly embracing automation technologies to support expanding digital transformation efforts. From checking in for a flight, to opening a bank account and even receiving self-help medical advice, automation software has the power to augment human capabilities and free up staff to focus on more strategic work that requires critical thinking and human interaction.

As a leader in the space, at THINK 2021 IBM announced a breakthrough automation technology for business professionals.

Watson Orchestrate will provide workers across sales, human resources, operations and more access to their own interactive AI to help them perform both mundane and mission-critical tasks faster - everything from scheduling meetings and procuring approvals to interacting with business systems and preparing proposals. With Watson Orchestrate, professionals will be able to accelerate their own personal productivity and reclaim their time so they can focus on work that matters the most to them and their business.

Here are five things to know:

1. Self-serve and easy to use automation

Without needing any IT skills, business professionals will be able to use natural language to interact with Watson Orchestrate, which will select and sequences its pre-packaged skills needed to perform a task and connects together applications, tools, data and history on-the-fly. So, a sales director can ask Watson Orchestrate to monitor business opportunities, send an email alert when a deal progresses, and set up a meeting with the respective sales lead to discuss the next steps - all behind the scenes.

2. Learns and improves as it goes

Watson Orchestrate understands and maintains context based on organizational knowledge and prior interactions. So, it can identify which Jenny the user wants to send an email to and which application to pull data from to perform the task - be it Salesforce, SAP or Workday. Watson Orchestrate can quickly access and act on the information needed based on the user's preferred business applications.

3. Improves productivity and business performance

Research from analyst firm Forrester shows that IBM's automation technologies can help businesses reduce manual processes by 80 percent. Watson Orchestrate will put users in the driver's seat, allowing them to decide what tasks and processes to automate to increase their own productivity and become their best professional selves.

4. Part of a single portfolio for business and IT AI-powered automation

While most technology companies tend to focus on either business or IT automation, IBM offers a single portfolio comprising both sets of capabilities, all built on Red Hat OpenShift and available to run anywhere. Watson Orchestrate comes on the heels of several acquisitions to expand IBM's AI-powered automation capabilities, including WDG Automation, Instana, myInvenio, and most recently, Turbonomic.

5. Supported by an automation ecosystem

According to a new "Global AI Adoption Index 2021" survey , 80 percent of companies are already using, or plan to use in the next 12 months, automation software and tools. More than 30 companies have declared their intent to join IBM's ecosystem of partners using IBM Cloud Paks for Automation including 32Bit, Aksis, CitiusTech, CloudHedge, Confluent, Compose IT, DICOS, Envisage Solutions, F5, GitLab, Hazelcast, HCL Technologies, Humio, Infosys, Intel, LTI, MATRIXX Software, NextEvolution, Orb Data, Persistent Systems, Prolifics, Rebendo, Salient Process, Inc, Sysdig, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Ltd, Trilio, VersaFile, Vicom Computer Services, Whitespace, and Wipro.

The AI capabilities in Watson Orchestrate are one of the latest innovations developed by IBM Research and planned for commercialization into IBM's products to help customers easily adopt IBM's hybrid cloud and AI solutions.

Watson Orchestrate is currently in preview in the IBM Cloud Paks for Automation, which feature capabilities to help quickly and intelligently automate IT and business workflows that run centrally, in networks and all the way to the edge.

For more information about Watson Orchestrate and to preview the new capability, please visit: ibm.biz/watsonorchestrate. To view a demo, please visit https://mediacenter.ibm.com/media/t/1_08zt28yj