Ride the Lightning

Watson Advertising: What Will Watson AI Mean for the Legal Sector?

February 22, 2018

Thanks to Sensei's own Jennifer Kubal for calling my attention to Watson Advertising. While I had heard that IBM was taking Watson into the advertising world, I really hadn't followed the specific examples of what Watson Advertising had achieved. This particularly interested me now because John and I are speaking tomorrow at the University of Richmond Law School's JOLT (Journal of Legal Technology) Conference. Our topic is The Roller Coaster History of AI. While AI has had several "winters," it certainly appears to be in the midst of a very long "spring." And Watson is certainly a piece of that spring.

If you visit the site (linked above), you will see some of what Watson is doing these days – making use of a vast amount of data, much of it unstructured, to determine when, where and how your message should go out – and even, in cases, composing the message for you.

Over the course of 2017, Watson Advertising attracted a good body of clients which you can see and read about under the Success Stories tab on the site. Just reading through the stories is impressive – and got me thinking about what Watson Advertising could offer the legal vertical.

Advertising Week carried a good story on Watson Advertising some time back which is still worth reading. The story explains that Watson Advertising is structured into four units. The flagship service, focused on audience targeting, utilizes Watson's neural networks to analyze data and score users based on how likely they are to take an action (purchasing a product, viewing a video or visiting a website). Another piece of the business will use AI for real-time optimization. A third, Watson Ads, will build on a service that launched in 2016 with a number of high-profile brands, employing AI not just for data analysis or targeting but also for content creation. As part of a Toyota campaign, for example, Watson became a copywriter, crafting messaging for the carmaker's Mirai model based on tech and science fans' interests.

In 2017, Watson transformed into a doctor, promoting Theraflu while answering questions about various flu symptoms. For Campbell's, Watson put on its chef's hat, personalizing recipes within display ads using data about consumers' locations and what ingredients they had on hand. For a major partnership with H&R Block, Watson turned into a tax expert, deploying an AI smart assistant to help clients find tax deductions.

It's all exciting, new (and not fully developed) and expensive. I can see Watson Advertising appealing greatly to the AmLaw 200, helping to create compelling content and to identify potential clients that might be ready to jump ship from another firm, add to their roster of capabilities and therefore need services the firm is well-equipped to provide or expand into new geographic areas where the firm has an established presence. There is much more of course – that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Watson Advertising is not without competitors so it will be interesting to see how this cognitive computing advertising market will shake out over time. For example, Salesforce has Einstein and Adobe has Sensei (really like that name guys). And there are many others, with the number growing month by month. This is one more wave of the future that law firms need to track.

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