IBM today launched the IBM Watson Trend App, a new way for shoppers to understand the reasons behind the top trends of the holiday season.
The app also predicts the hottest products before they sell out. The app is available via a free download at the Apple App Store.
In a press statement, IBM said the app distils the sentiment of tens of millions of online conversations by scouring 10,000 sources across social media sites, blogs, forums, comments, ratings and reviews.
As consumers use the IBM Watson Trend app to pinpoint what products are popular and why, IBM also reports on how consumers will shop for these gifts.
With the Thanksgiving holiday just one week away, IBM predicts that, for the first time, more consumers will turn to their mobile devices than their desktop to seek out the best buys.
Over the five-day holiday period, mobile traffic is expected to increase by nearly 57 percent, up 17 percent over 2014. Mobile sales are predicted to increase by more than 36 percent, up 34 percent over last year.
The Watson Trend App uses a combination of API capabilities from IBM’s open Watson Developer platform including Sentiment Analysis, Keyword Extraction, Concept Tagging and Taxonomy Classification.
In the future, IBM said the IBM Watson Trend will continue to evolve with the addition of new capabilities including geographic and language data, and an increased level of personalization that caters to each consumer’s unique interests and preferences.
