Bodegas Cepa 21 Turns to IBM Watson to Produce the Best Wines Every Harvest

Moro family winery collaborates with IBM, Efor and the European University on pioneering a new approach for wine making with IBM’s Hybrid Cloud strategy

Madrid (Spain), August 27th, 2020. – In the wine industry there are infinite variables leading to wines with different organoleptic characteristics even from the same area in the same year. Although some of this uncertainty is inevitable and part of the wine’s magic, the secret of good winemaking comes from years of experience and access to good quality data.

To improve results, the Bodegas Cepa 21 brand, part of the Moro’s family business in Ribera del Duero, has signed a contract with IBM to develop, together with its partners Efor and the European University, a new innovative solution. It uses IBM Watson, running on IBM public cloud, to analyze historical wine making data managed by the Regulatory Council of the Ribera del Duero Designation of Origin combined with historical weather data provided by The Weather Company, an IBM Business.

With this solution, the Bodegas Cepa 21 team will be able to make more informed decisions in order to get the best results possible out of the land on their estate. José Moro, President of Bodegas Cepa 21 commented: “We always bet on integrating technology, talent and ideas in our value chain, and in a traditional sector such as wine, we know that it is crucial in our ability to differentiate ourselves. The decisions we have made through intuition and long experience over many years, we can now see backed up by data, allowing us to be more precise and much more productive.”

“This is an excellent demonstration of how IBM public cloud is helping our clients across every industry deliver the latest technologies in an open and secure environment anywhere. IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy is enabling wineries of the stature of Emilio Moro to further develop their business while minimizing risks”, says Javier Valencia, Cloud & Cognitive Vice president at IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel.

The IBM technologies used in the solution include Watson Studio, Cognos Analytics, and Watson Machine Learning, all running on IBM public cloud.

IBM Collaborated with the City of Seoul, South Korea to Develop an AI-based Virtual Assistant for its Citizens using IBM Watson

The city of Seoul’s ‘I Care You’ project is using IBM Watson Assistant running on IBM public cloud to gather citizens’ opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 20, 2020 — IBM and the city of Seoul, South Korea, have launched an AI-based virtual assistant for Seoul citizens using IBM Watson Assistant. The virtual assistant is part of the city’s “I Care You” project, which is designed to survey the changes to daily life and difficulties that citizens are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic to help inform policy decisions moving forward.

With cases in more than 216 countries, areas or territories according to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 is changing what normal means for customers, citizens, businesses, government agencies and healthcare organizations all over the world.

“Through this survey using an AI-based virtual assistant, we have an opportunity to understand the situation and social problems of citizens due to COVID-19,” said Seon-Ae Jeong, the Director-General of Seoul Innovation. “This collaboration with IBM is a meaningful example of a public-private partnership. In the future, the results will be utilized to help develop various policies in Seoul City.”

The city of Seoul’s new AI-based virtual assistant will survey Seoul citizens and then perform categorization and analysis of the gathered information to help policymakers. The survey contains questions about the changes caused by COVID-19, such as changes in health, problems with social isolation or environmental factors leading to vulnerabilities. It also asks about the difficulties caused by overall changes in daily life patterns (e.g. eating habits, free time, social interaction) and those caused by institutional policies. The survey is being carried out through the website of the city of Seoul as well as its social media channels. Any citizen living in the city of Seoul is eligible to take part in the survey.

IBM South Korea worked with the city of Seoul throughout the entire process from training and development of the virtual assistant to collecting citizen opinions, analysis and service planning to make the “I Care You” project available for use in just three weeks. The virtual assistant, which is hosted on IBM public cloud, is developed with Watson Assistant for virtual agents and uses the enterprise AI search capabilities of IBM Watson Discovery to perform categorization and analysis of the gathered information.

The city of Seoul is the latest organization to use IBM Watson Assistant to manage the high volume of engagement with citizens, using the solution to communicate changes and collect opinions, and provide insights to foster safety, and work smart throughout the pandemic. IBM Watson Assistant has been used in 25 countries and counting to help manage COVID-19 response.

Workday and IBM Expand Partnership to Help Customers Plan Return to the Workplace

Integrated Planning Solution Combines Power of Workday and IBM Watson-Enabled AI to Help Customers Safely Reopen

PLEASANTON, Calif. and ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 12, 2020 — Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) and IBM today announced an expanded partnership and the availability of a joint solution to help business and community leaders plan, schedule, and monitor a safe return to the workplace for employees.

As organizations begin to address how to prioritize safety in bringing employees back to the workplace, they must consider a myriad of factors, including health, local guidelines, governmental policies, employee sentiment, facility readiness, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Every organization has a unique strategy that must be mapped to their specific facilities and workforce requirements. Together, IBM and Workday are delivering a solution to support and accelerate their customers’ return to the workplace by combining planning capabilities with critical employee, community health, and workplace data.

The integrated solution combines:

  • Workday Adaptive Planning at the core, which is used by more than 5,200 companies today for planning, forecasting, and modeling, as well as Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), which provides critical employee sentiment data that offers insight into worker readiness to return to the workplace.
  • IBM Watson Works, a set of products that embeds Watson artificial intelligence (AI) models and applications to help companies as they navigate many aspects of the return to workplace challenge, including deciding when to return to the workplace, connecting employer data to entry privileges, and managing facilities and adhering to new protocols.

Today’s announcement builds on return to work offerings from Workday and IBM, as global customers turn to innovative solutions to better manage their people and finances in today’s changing world. Workday and IBM Services will work together with customers on planning, program, and implementation tasks.

Balancing Workforce and Workplace Supply and Demand
The integrated Workday and IBM solution is designed to deliver comprehensive return to workplace planning that balances workspace demand, by location and site, against the supply of reduced facility capacity. Key to the solution is the inclusion of dynamically changing data from multiple sources that address the complexities involved in continuous planning, a requirement for workforce and workplace planning today. Specifically, the solution can help customers:

  • Model site capacity and evaluate employee roles and eligibility for return to the workplace. Model scenarios to plan the demand for workspace against supply, given reduced site capacity based on health and safety guidelines, and model prioritization of the return of workers based on job roles and eligibility.
  • Assess community risk and workplace readiness. Identify COVID-19 trends for each business location and where workers live to enable site leaders, HR leaders, and workforce and workplace planners to use data-driven insights to help make decisions and plans around facility re-openings.
  • Plan for critical supplies. Track critical supplies by location to help ensure there is enough PPE—such as masks, gloves, and sanitizer—available for workers at each location and to maintain inventory.
  • Evaluate workforce sentiment to inform return to work demand. Model return-to-workplace scenarios using data on workers’ preferences, sentiments, and concerns, gleaned from survey data and their preferences for work location such as on site, work from home, or hybrid.
  • Continuously provide site readiness and worker health and safety data to customers to inform return to workplace plans. Leverage community risk score trends in real time to help leaders make timely decisions to sequence the return to the workplace. As an extended capability, customers can also assess workers’ self-reported health status and ongoing eligibility.

“Today’s CHROs are now challenged with managing the complexities of integrating real-time site and worker data in a way they’ve never needed to before, moving workforce planning from strategic to mission critical nearly overnight,” said Kshitij Dayal, general manager, Planning Products, Workday. “Combining the power of Workday—including Workday Adaptive Planning to create comprehensive plans and models—with IBM Watson Works can help accelerate customers’ return to workplace planning with a sustainable solution to balance workforce and workplace supply and demand in the ever-changing world.”

“Keeping employees safe during the return to workplace process is of critical importance to business leaders across industries,” said Kareem Yusuf, Ph.D, general manager, AI Applications, IBM Cloud and Cognitive Software. “By partnering with Workday on a joint solution, we’re extending the capabilities delivered by Watson Works to help customers gain greater agility to respond to ever-changing working conditions and evolving business needs. Together we are helping organizations overcome the complexities involved in continuous planning to ultimately improve workplace readiness.”

For more information about the integrated solution, please visit the Workday marketplace.

LafargeHolcim And IBM Join Forces to Further Develop ORIS – The First Digital Materials Platform For Sustainable Road Solutions

Zurich, Switzerland – August 4, 2020 LafargeHolcim announces it will work with IBM Services to further develop the first digital platform for road design optimization, ORIS. The solution can reduce road project costs by up to one-third and carbon emissions by up to half while tripling road durability and usage lifespans.

ORIS allows decision-makers, road infrastructure authorities and project investors to improve road construction and sustainability and reduce inefficiencies through smart project design. This is especially timely as governments design stimulus packages to revive economic activity post COVID-19 while also responding to the impact of climate change.

An average of 700,000 kilometres (435,000 miles) of new roads are being built globally every year. Improving road quality and resilience will help reduce the massive amount of carbon emissions attributed to transportation. Because roads vary depending on location, climate, vehicle types and traffic volumes, it is a complex challenge to define the most sustainable and cost-effective mix of building materials and technologies early in the design phase. ORIS assesses road pavement designs from different perspectives and recommends efficient construction and maintenance patterns with local materials availability and capabilities. ORIS is supporting public policies that conserve natural resources, enabling a more local and circular economy in road construction.

“We are accelerating the digitalization of our solutions for sustainable and high-performance construction,” said Marcel Cobuz, Region Head of Europe, Member of the Executive Committee with responsibility for innovation at LafargeHolcim on a global level. “With global solutions like ORIS, we are committed to leading the way in low-carbon and circular construction as well as responsible natural resource consumption for roads and beyond. We have already entered into pilots with different partners such as road authorities, international financing institutions and engineering firms to use ORIS in both developed and emerging markets.”

LafargeHolcim will leverage IBM’s portfolio of digital platforms, hybrid clouds, digital design services, as well as IBM’s expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet-of-Things and data analytics to enhance even further its materials knowledge in cement and ready-mix concrete products, as well as its solutions and products, including precast concrete, asphalt, mortar and building solutions.

“Data-driven solutions and digital technologies have the potential to transform road construction towards more sustainable, circular, low-carbon, low-resource and cost-efficient techniques. ORIS is instrumental in recommending appropriate and tailored approaches to road-building, thus minimizing costs, environmental impacts and project delays,” says Hervé Rolland, Vice President, Industrial Solutions, IBM Europe. “IBM Services help businesses establish the right industry-relevant platforms that support rapid digitization, standardization and simplification, as well as vertically integrating both industrial and business operations.”

IBM and Influential Launch AI-enabled Social Targeting Solution To Help Brands Identify Suitable Influencers

IBM Expands Collaboration with Social Media Technology Platform Influential
New Solution, “IBM Watson Advertising Social Targeting with Influential,” Harnesses AI to Help Identify Influencers that Align with a Brand’s Values and Voice

NEW YORK, July 30, 2020 — IBM today announced the launch of Watson Advertising Social Targeting with Influential, a new solution that harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) to help brands identify influencers that best align with their brand values. The new solution within the Watson Advertising suite of targeting products marks an expanded collaboration with Influential, a leader in advanced social media technology. As brands shift advertising tactics in an increasingly fluid landscape, the social targeting tool can help brands communicate with an audience.

Harnessing the power of Watson to help clients make data driven decisions that foster connections with consumers, Social Targeting with Influential:

  • Leverages IBM Watson Natural Language Understanding on the IBM public cloud to process and analyze social media data to help expedite influencer identification;
  • Identifies brand-safe influencers by gauging profanity ratings to recommend potential partners with shared values;
  • Marries online behavior with offline purchase to help drive ROI based on real-time campaign measurement across brand perception, consumer engagement, online conversion, offline sales and foot traffic; and
  • Delivers tone appropriate ads to real people at the right time to help drive engagement.

“Brand reputation matters now more than ever. Using social media to help drive purchase consideration is important as brands implement influencer marketing strategies to establish real connections with consumers, said Bob Lord, SVP of Cognitive Applications, Blockchain and Ecosystems, IBM. “Together with Influential, we’re building trust into the ecosystem by applying IBM Watson to help clients select an influencer that aligns to their brand values, exemplifying our belief that AI can and should be the backbone of the new digital economy.”

According to the 2019 Influencer Marketing Global Survey from Rakuten, an insight and analytics company, 87% consumers surveyed stated that they were inspired to make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation.  Further illustrating the power of influencer marketing to guide purchases, 61% of responding consumers stated their intent to click on a sponsored link from an influencer to learn more about a product. Social Targeting with Influential relies on IBM Watson to align brands with like-minded influencers that demonstrate similar values, further illustrating how brands across industries can harness AI to make more informed decisions. Solidifying the power of “belief-driven buying,” in a recent survey conducted by Salesforce Research, 92% of consumers surveyed report that trusting a brand makes them more likely to buy products and services. According to an audience poll conducted by IBM Watson Advertising at the MMA Global CEO/CMO Summit on brand trust, 52% of respondents stated that they’re likely to pause advertising on Facebook, illustrating the power of preserving brand integrity on social media platforms.

“More than ever, brands seek to make sure every dollar spent drives a measurable return in the online and offline world” said Influential CEO Ryan Detert. “Influencer marketing has evolved into a fully trackable channel that leverages suitable voices to speak on behalf of brands. We’ve seen how powerful Watson can be and are thrilled to expand our relationship with IBM Watson Advertising to bring this offering to even more brands and influencers.”

Establishing the Influential tool’s importance as the advertising industry readies for a future without cookies, Social Targeting with Influential does not rely on third-party data, but rather anonymized first-party data generated by an influencer’s followers on social media, further developing a relationship between brand and consumer. Acknowledging the value that the Influential tool brings to the marketplace, leading brands like Wells Fargo, McDonald’s and the NFL today are using the Influential platform to help drive consumer engagement and ROI.

“Influential’s IBM Watson-powered campaigns have helped us identify the right influencers and deliver at scale to help us better connect with our target audiences, added Michael Lacorazza, Executive Vice President, CMO, Head of Integrated Marketing, Wells Fargo.

These brands using the Influential platform saw unprecedented 100% positive sentiment scores among users and an increase in ROAS compared to social benchmarks, further illustrating the importance of harnessing AI technology to make smarter decisions.

About Influential

Influential is an AI-powered social data and conversion technology. Leveraging a network of over 1 Million social media influencers, Influential’s technology powers seamless talent discovery, comprehensive brand safety, and creative and execution services. Through strategic partnerships with first and third-party data providers, Influential’s Optimized Paid Media offering enables bespoke targeting and measurement solutions, including both online and offline attribution, such as sales lift, TV tune-in lift, foot traffic, as well as brand lift studies. Influential works with Fortune 500 brands, including Walmart, McDonald’s, Pepsi, NFL, Nestlé, General Mills, Toyota, Samsung, and Sony Pictures. With offices in Los Angeles, NYC, and Las Vegas, Influential is a developer partner of IBM Watson, a strategic partner of WME and Oracle, and a Facebook and Instagram Marketing Partner.