i3 - September/October 2016 - 47

Did the attendees at SXSW
and CSUN provide feedback?

THE TOP
THREE
RECOMMENDED
SOLUTION
AREAS WERE:

As a youth-focused event, SXSW may
not be the first place you'd expect to find
aging discussed. However, it's a great
showcase for innovations in digital and
interactive technologies and draws a
large, tech-savvy audience. Visitors to the
IBM Cognitive Studio at SXSW this year
were asked three questions:
l What worries you most
about getting older?
l What emerging technology
will help manage the aging
process the most?
l What discussions are the most
difficult to have with your parents?
Their responses gave us a perspective of
both individual and familial concerns
about aging, as well as attitudes about
the role of technology in the process. We
shared this data with the student teams
from the IXL Center for Innovation and
Excellence who were tasked with helping
us generate new ideas and business
strategies for the aging population.

What areas did the student
teams identify?
We challenged the student teams to
envision solutions that would meet the
following criteria:
l Include both consumer devices
as well as cognitive computing
l Delivery via a network of
ecosystem partners (versus
direct to consumer)
l Ability to scale at a global level

1

Knowledgeas-a-Service

Today, non-profit groups
(e.g., AARP) and agencies
connect with a range of individual
partners (e.g., banks) to provide services such as health care discounts,
insurance plans, travel benefits, intellectual community involvement and
entertainment. While this model works,
it's missing a major opportunity to share
information and develop new insights
about this important audience/market.
Rather than a one-to-one relationship
with a single non-profit or agency, what
if partners could tap into a central cognitive computing platform that combines
consumer preferences, industry data
and public information, uniquely and
securely? This will help older adults and
their caregivers get the answers and
services they need, simply and easily.
The availability of large-scale, integrated
sets of consumer data, combined with
the power of cognitive computing
would give agencies and technology
providers the ability to quickly develop
targeted new offerings and expanded
partnerships.

2

Create a Cognitively
Powered "Town Square"

Aging individuals want to
stay connected within a
community, one that provides support,
services, social opportunities and
advice. Each community has a unique
set of factors - libraries, shops, vendors,
physicians, and other services that make
it home to its members. While some
communities are lucky enough to have
a central place for its residents, others
are turning to technology to help provide
or enhance that sense of connection.
Leveraging a cognitive platform such
as Watson with its standard APIs, any
number of entities - from cities, towns,
agencies, hospital networks and telecommunication vendors, could quickly
build a virtual community platform,
including language, speech, vision
and data integration. Partners interested in participating in a community

could easily plug-in their services
and offerings, creating a customized,
scalable and extensible online experience. Aging individuals could access
a set of integrated information and
services that help them lead full lives,
ranging from home repair, shopping,
medical support, educational opportunities, and social events.

3

Detecting and
Preventing Elder Fraud

Most fraud management
systems and solutions are
designed for a general population,
not an aging population - despite the
fact that seniors are more vulnerable.
What if there was a platform that could
monitor, detect, prevent and learn from
fraudulent activities, designed specifically for aging individuals? Using
a cognitive platform, banking and
investment institutions could integrate
existing financial models, together with
market data, government and regulatory
agency reporting, as well as monitoring
of seniors' financial transactions, to build
a comprehensive financial persona for
elderly individuals. This would define
elements such as how they spend, how
they purchase, what they do, and what
kind of fraudulent activities are happening - all critical information that can
feed back into the financial model and
fraud detection systems, continuously
and instantly. Taking this idea a step
forward, this knowledge can be used to
develop a virtual wallet for older adults.
An Elder Wallet, or crypto-currency,
could be used through specific cards
or devices protected by chip or biometric security features, offering secure
purchasing with participating companies including retailers, utilities and
other vendors.

What new partnerships do you
see coming out of this work?
This is a highly complex market due to
many factors - large age span, different
government/health/community models,
various levels of technology adoption
and infrastructure available. It's also
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016

47
i3 - September/October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of i3 - September/October 2016
