IBM’s recent announcements of three new services based in Watson technology make it clear that there is pressure in the enterprise software space to incorporate new technologies, both in hardware and software, in order to keep pace with modern business.

 It seems we are approaching another turning point in technology where many concepts that were previously limited to academic research or very narrow industry niches are now being considered for mainstream enterprise software applications.  Machine learning, along with many other disciplines within the field of artificial intelligence and cognitive systems, is gaining popularity, and it may in the not so distant future have a colossal impact on the software industry.