AI and the Cognitive Enterprise—IBM's Mark Foster Talks About the Rise of 'Smart' Platforms to Analyze Data for Decision Making

As artificial intelligence technology matures, more and more companies are integrating it into the core of their business as a way to get the maximum utility out of their massive troves of data. A major way this is happening is through the creation of "smart" platforms, which make use of artificial intelligence that uses that data to help improve processes, workflows, and even transform entire organizations. Consulting caught up with Mark Foster, Senior Vice President of IBM Global Business Services, to talk about the rise of the Cognitive Enterprise and how it's changing the way companies operate.

Consulting: How would you define the Learning Enterprise and Cognitive Enterprise?

Foster:  We think it's the next evolution after the digital enterprise. The digital enterprise was one that was transformed from the outside-in with the pervasiveness of the web. Cognitive enterprise is transformed inside-out with the pervasiveness of data. The idea is just as the internet transformed business architectures, we're in a world where our businesses have become more and more digital and operating models are more and more enabled and shaped by that. They're going to be similarly enabled and dramatically changed by what we can do in a cognitive era by working on our data, putting our data we have to work on differentiated processes and workflows in our business that then enables our organizations and teams as the data works through AI and automation to make the processes better and better.