It’s a new “cognitive app” designed to reveal consumer preferences for what are destined to be the most desired holiday gifts.
It’s also either cool or creepy, depending upon one’s point of view.
It’s “a new way for shoppers to understand the reasons behind the top trends of the holiday season and also predict the hottest products before they sell out,” explained IBM in a news release.
The app is now available as a free download in the Apple App Store.
What does the app do?
Here’s what IBM says:
“The IBM Watson Trend app distills the sentiment of tens of millions of online conversations by scouring 10,000 sources across social media sites, blogs, forums, comments, ratings and reviews. Unlike other apps or lists that provide a static ranking of “hot” products, the Watson app reveals how consumers feel about the products they are considering or have purchased.”
According to IBM, the app uncovers consumer preferences to pinpoint patterns and trends to reveal why people are choosing certain products or brands.
It also employs the latest in predictive analytics to forecast if a particular trend is a fleeting fad or will continue to remain strong. That could be huge for parents, grandparents, and others deciding what gifts to buy.
“Users can view the top 100 trending products and stories behind them across three categories — consumer electronics, toys, and health and fitness,” notes IBM.
IBM has already divulged some details on the current top trends (click on the link for more info).
It’s pretty heady stuff. That’s because the Watson Trend App uses a combination of API capabilities from IBM’s open Watson Developer platform including Sentiment Analysis, Keyword Extraction, Concept Tagging and Taxonomy Classification.
We’ve come a long ways when it’s not just data on past purchases or items sitting in digital shopping carts. IBM is plumbing the depths of something as innovative as “sentiment analysis.”
For more information or to download the IBM Watson Trend App, go to www.ibmwatsontrend.com
And this YouTube video gives you the basic lay of the land. Check it out here.
