There may be no other company that has been working on artificial intelligence (AI) longer than International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM). As Bank of America analysts noted last week, IBM has been building specialized AI applications for decades. The company's highest-profile AI achievement was its 2011 win on Jeopardy! with its Watson system, which could understand natural language.

IBM's attempts to turn Watson into a real business over the years have largely failed. The company talked up the potential for AI in the healthcare industry, but it sold its Watson Health business after that potential went unrealized. The company has since pared back its ambitions, mostly focusing its AI efforts on helping its clients improve their own operations.

While IBM's attempts to turn Watson into a household name fell flat, the company is well positioned to be a major player in the AI market. IBM trotted out the Watson name earlier this year with its new watsonx platform, but the company's strategy is very different this time around. The original incarnation of Watson was a solution in search of a problem. This new platform enables clients to build, train, and deploy large language models while maintaining control of their data. Much like the rest of IBM's business these days, watsonx is aimed at helping clients do things better.

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Source Fool.com