Watson in 2015

In 2015, APIs for IBM's Watson system were front and center as a means to bring cognitive computing applications to a broader corporate audience. "People don't necessarily want to buy a million-dollar system to run Watson," IDC's David Schubmehl said. "But PaaS is well-suited for cognitive platforms. People can use Bluemix services and start working with one or two APIs, rather than use the whole system." He added that IBM's March 2015 purchase of AlchemyAPI -- a deep-learning AI technology startup -- was also notable, as it brought to Big Blue a popular set of developer APIs that can help Watson in areas beyond machine learning applications. READ IBM Watson APIs hold key to broader cognitive computing use.