IBM Watson was introduced to the average person years ago when the cognitive computing platform went up against game show Jeopardy’s most famous contestant, Ken Jennings – and won big.

However, IBM Watson is much more than a trivia buff. Today, according to IBM, Watson represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where systems understand the world in a way more similar to humans: through senses, learning and experience. Watson continuously learns from previous interactions, gaining in value and knowledge over time. With the help of Watson, organizations are harnessing the power of cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.

"Innovation in natural language processing and artificial intelligence is creating opportunities for consumer marketers to better identify and communicate with their customers," said Andy O’Dell, chief strategy officer at Clutch, a marketing technology company. "In retail, IBM Watson has the capabilities to transform how marketers understand and relate to these shoppers. Watson, for example, can take a sample of a consumer’s social media post over time and use this to predict the customer’s age, education level, and even their emotional characteristics. It can assess a customer’s unique personality across 50 distinct facets of personality like extroversion, risk aversion or agreeableness just based on these posts."

Here are other ways IBM Watson is being used across different companies and industries.