SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) and Slack are partnering to bring Watson to Slack's global
community of developers and enterprise users. Drawing on the power
of Slack's digital workplace and the cognitive computing
capabilities of Watson, developers will be able to create more
offerings — including bots and other conversational inferences
— that will transform the platform's user experience.
Developers can easily access the range of Watson services -- such
as Conversation, Sentiment Analysis or speech APIs -- and build
powerful new tools for the platform with this enhanced cognitive
functionality.
As a first step, IBM and Slack intend to develop new
and improved communications tools for users of the Slack platform,
including an updated Slackbot to be powered by Watson and an IBM
Watson-enabled bot for IT and network operations. IBM and Slack
also plan to share learnings from the creation of these tools with
developers as part of ongoing educational efforts, and the
companies plan to offer specialized tutorial resources to
accelerate how developers can tap into Watson:
Slack Intends to Adopt Watson Conversation for
Slackbot: To further strengthen the Slack user experience,
Slack intends to adopt Watson Conversation as a
technology that helps power its Slackbot -- the platform's popular
customer service bot. This integration will improve the accuracy
and efficiency of trouble-shooting on the platform. Since the tool
uses Watson machine learning, it can become more accurate over
time.
IBM Building Watson-Enabled Bot
for IT and Network Operations: IBM is building a
Watson-enabled Slack chatbot for IT and network operational
incidents, so enterprise teams can more efficiently identify,
address and fix these issues. The solution provides conversational
interactions and resolution recommendations between a Slack channel
and traditional Cloud, IT, and Network Operations tools. Once a
team integrates it, users will no longer toggle between
communications tools and resources to resolve an issue, as the bot
centralizes trouble-shooting in one channel. Also, because of
Watson's machine learning technology, as the bot gathers data from
previous conversations, it can more quickly and accurately address
similar issues over time. Primary users of the tool will be subject
matter experts, developers, engineers and application owners
involved in supporting complex technology and application
environments.
IBM Professionals Use Slack for
Solutions Development: In tandem with this collaboration,
a number of IBM groups are tapping into Slack. Teams such as
marketing, design, and engineering have begun using the
technology as part of their work to create new cognitive solutions
that can be used on the Slack platform. They will also make their
learnings from building these solutions available to
developers.
IBM and Slack will Offer
Onboarding Resources for Developers: IBM and Slack will
offer tools that make it easier for developers to integrate into
Slack. IBM will release a Botkit Watson middleware plugin that
allows the Watson Conversation service to talk to Slack and other
messaging channels. The plugin will be made available on Github for
easy access. Additionally, the companies will offer an Application
Starter Kit that provides resources to developers for getting
started, such as code and step-by-step instructions for building on
the Slack platform.
"Slack and IBM share the same vision for how Ai can transform
workplace efficiency, and we recognize the important role
developers are playing as they tap into cognitive technology to
improve this part of our lives," said David
Kenny, general manager, IBM Watson. "By combining Slack's
digital workplace capabilities and Watson's cognitive computing
power, one of our first steps is to make it easier for developers
to build cognitive-enabled bots and solutions for the Slack
platform. From there, we think there will be many more ways we can
collaborate and help propel productivity in new ways."
"Slack offers unprecedented internal transparency to
organizations of all sizes around the world. As an increasing
number of functional teams — from finance, customer support and HR,
to recruiting, marketing and sales — have integrated their
workflows into Slack, the degree of leverage we can gain from
enhanced cognitive capabilities becomes massive," said Stewart Butterfield, CEO and co-founder of
Slack. "We want Slack to become better and smarter the more you use
it. We want to make it simpler for people to keep up with the most
important conversations and to supercharge their ability to find
fast answers. This partnership with IBM and the work we are doing
with Watson, will accelerate our customers' organizational
intelligence and propel workplace productivity in dramatic new
ways."
IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing:
Watson
represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where
systems understand the world the way humans do: through senses,
learning, and experience. Watson continuously learns from previous
interactions, gaining in value and knowledge over time.
With Watson, organizations are harnessing the power of cognitive
computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs
better, and solve important challenges. Watson is open to the
world, allowing a growing community of developers, students,
entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts to easily tap into the most
advanced and diverse cognitive computing platform available today.
Watson solutions are being built, used and deployed in more than 45
countries and across 20 different industries.
For more information about how IBM Watson is driving progress in
the world, watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PujCkDAXji8.
For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson and
ibm.com/press/watson.
Gabrielle Gugliocciello
IBM Watson External Relations
GGuglio@us.ibm.com
Julia R. Blystone
Slack Communications
jblystone@slack-corp.com
415-225-7449
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SOURCE IBM Corporation