It’s your wife’s birthday and you want to surprise her with a piece of jewellery that will make her fall in love with you all over again. You land up at the jewellery store and reality strikes. You have never shopped for jewellery in your life — one wrong decision and you might incur her wrath till the next birthday.

Fortunately, you meet Arjun, the robot from the IBM Watson programme. Using social media analytics, Arjun figures out that your wife loves a white gold-and-pearl necklace. Fortunately, you recall that she has never had a piece of jewellery like that — and your day is made (rather, saved). Disclaimer: if your wife is not active on social media, then only God can save you.

Arjun, as he is nicknamed by IBM India executives, is a Nao humanoid robot made by the French robotics company Aldebaran. Arjun was just one of the attractions at a recent event hosted by IBM in Mumbai.

To bring artificial intelligence (AI) to the mainstream, IBM’s Watson programme is currently testing the robot (called Connie) at Hilton hotels in the US, where it answers queries from guests.

Analytics brews insight Another application was in the space of food. IBM’s Watson uses machine learning to construct new recipes and cocktails. This algorithm matches foods based on extensive taste profiles and chemical make-up of those edibles in their database. This writer tried a mocktail created using Watson’s recipe, but the result was nothing to write home about. Learning: artificial intelligence might create the best recipes, but the human hand that puts them together has to be equally competent.

At the event, there were other attractions like knowing one’s personality by analysing what they say on Twitter. This writer is not very active on that platform, but had put up enough tweets for the computer to analyse his social media personality. The result was pretty accurate. The next point of interaction is where analytics met retail. The case being shown was of a coffee shop that does brisk business during the winter and saw a slowdown in summer. An analysis of the previous year’s bills showed that customers largely preferred a certain kind of coffee and a particular variety of cake during summer. The coffee store could use this insight to stock up its inventory accordingly and plan a combo offer to increase sales.

While some of the above cases might be fictional accounts, there are many companies that are using AI and analytics and other technologies to delight customers.

A couple of days ago, a new GPS entered the automotive space. Carmaker Chevrolet calls it the Global Positivity System. Chevrolet tied up with a fuel station in Gurgaon to inspire positivity among patrons. Visitors were given the chance to pay for fuel with their positivity; by taking on the Chevrolet GPS experience.

What’s your score? Using IBM’s Watson Personality Insights and AlchemyLanguage APIs, Chevrolet’s Global Positivity System builds a detailed personality snapshot for users that is based on multiple criteria, including a social media analysis to evaluate sentiment and a personality characteristic evaluation to help guide users toward activities for their next adventure. Chevrolet created a microsite, findnewroads.com, to enable customers to discover their positivity score and get a glimpse into their social personality. Jack Uppal, Vice-President, Marketing and Customer Experience, Chevrolet, says in a media statement, “We encourage people around the world to reflect on their own outlook by using the Global Positivity System and to consider the possibilities in their own lives.”

The output also includes a score based on Watson Sentiment Analysis capability, which provides an interpretation of the positivity of users’ Facebook and Twitter posts. Users can then share their score with each other via social media and compare it to the average of the Global Positivity System community. The platform will also identify each person’s most positive and least positive posts, as well as their most frequently used positive words and Emojis.

In addition to a positivity score and sentiment analysis, the snapshot highlights users’ top three personality traits identified by Watson Personality Insights, such as excitement and self-expression. The site then encourages users to Find New Roads that may appeal to their traits, such as touring a museum or taking on a new hobby.

While a lot might be happening in the wide space where technology meets marketing, here’s a word of advice to be a good husband: Ensure that your wife has a social media profile and is active on it too.

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