Regardless of industry, the companies that win in the digital era are those that take the shortest paths to the best results. That means getting the right information in the right hands at the right time. These realities are why more organizations are turning to cognitive solutions.

Our market report, “The cognitive advantage: Insights from early adopters on driving business value,” reveals that early adopters employ cognitive computing for competitive differentiation. In fact, 65 percent say that cognitive adoption is very important to their strategy and success, and more than half regard cognitive computing as a must-have to remain competitive.

Cognitive adoption varies from bold, enterprise-wide implementations to more gradual deployments. Some organizations create custom platforms, while others use composable APIs. Early adopters leverage a range of capabilities from machine learning to natural language processing to unlock value from a range of data sources, both structured and unstructured.

All told, early adopters are pushing the boundaries of traditional business practices and unlocking groundbreaking services and sources of value. Sixty percent say their cognitive initiatives have exceeded their expectations.

Here are just a few of the ways early adopters are seizing the cognitive advantage:

Evolving customer acquisition

By mining unstructured data for product pricing, purchase records and market trends, companies can solidify their prospects, fine-tune pricing and grow revenue.

Evolving customer acquisition

By mining unstructured data for product pricing, purchase records and market trends, retailers and consumer-facing companies can solidify their prospects, fine-tune pricing and grow revenue.

Increasing customer engagement

Consumer-facing businesses use cognitive tools to tease out key behavioral patterns to reach customers in the right ways and over the right channels.

Increasing customer engagement

Consumer-facing businesses use cognitive tools to tease out key behavioral patterns to reach customers in the right ways and over the right channels.

Improving customer service

Contact centers have turned to cognitive technology to provide more efficient and personalized customer service.

Improving customer service

Contact centers have turned to cognitive technology to provide more efficient and personalized customer service.

Personalizing health and wellness

Cognitive devices allow individuals to gain better command of their care, help providers scale time and expertise, and let practitioners tailor treatments to specific lifestyle regimens.

Personalizing health and wellness

Cognitive devices allow individuals to gain better command of their care, help providers scale time and expertise, and let practitioners tailor treatments to specific lifestyle regimens.

Boosting productivity and efficiency

By using cognitive tools to improve their search capabilities, customer care and workflow management, business leaders are accelerating productivity and efficiency.

Boosting productivity and efficiency

By using cognitive tools to improve their search capabilities, customer care and workflow management, business leaders are accelerating productivity and efficiency.

Reinventing risk management

Professional services firms and insurers are employing cognitive solutions to improve sampling and modeling, which is helping them improve client and risk outcomes.

Reinventing risk management

Professional services firms and insurers are employing cognitive solutions to improve sampling and modeling, which is helping them improve client and risk outcomes.

Enhancing security and threat intelligence

Cognitive technology is helping defense and other intelligence organizations track an unprecedented variety of data to detect signals, protect the public, and direct intelligence resources more effectively.

Enhancing security and threat intelligence

Cognitive technology is helping defense and other intelligence organizations track an unprecedented variety of data to detect signals, protect the public, and direct intelligence resources more effectively.