Author ORCID Identifier
Abhinav Shekhar: https://orcid.org/0001-0009-3133-5351
Rakesh Gupta: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5151-2802
Sujeet K. Sharma: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6985-3798
Abstract
IBM is a technology services and consulting company. It provides solutions in analytics, IT infrastructure, cloud computing, business automations, cybersecurity, data storage, application development, blockchain, and consulting solutions(Bloomberg, n.d.). It has a decades-long history of artificial intelligence (AI) experimentation and research. Watson was a generation of AI machines IBM built that could ingest vast amounts of information from multiple sources, understand questions posed in natural language, and answer them accurately. With this AI capability, IBM ventured into healthcare with the objective of monetizing Watson for cancer detection, diagnosis, and treatment recommendations. While it achieved some success, it was encountering challenges with accuracy, ethical issues with AI, and in making the division profitable. IBM faced a strategic choice: retain Watson’s focus as a healthcare information system (IS) or reposition it as a cross-industry AI platform on which businesses can build, deploy, embed, and scale machine learning models for their operations and offerings. Another alternative was a unified technological framework that converges these two approaches. This article explores these options and provides insights into the opportunities and challenges in unlocking the transformational power of AI.
DOI
10.17705/1CAIS.05751
Recommended Citation
Shekhar, A., Gupta, R., & Sharma, S. K. (2025). IBM Watson Health Growth Strategy: Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) The Answer. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 57, 1168-1188. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.05751
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