IBM’s question-answering Watson supercomputer is building quite the résumé. First it won a much-publicized showdownagainst the two greatest Jeopardy! champions of all time, then it went to medical school and emerged as a budding oncologist. Now Watson has a new job–as a customer-service agent with the mostest. The help desk is a bit of a step down from fighting cancer, but IBM is nothing if not pragmatic. U.S. organizations spend $112 billion on call center labor and software, yet half of the 270 billion customer-service calls go unresolved each year, presenting a fairly sizable opening for an enhanced cognitive computer. Let’s face it: Rare is the occasion when you a) reach a live person and b) they know what they’re talking about. Why not give silicon a chance?

Starting in the next few months, IBM will be rolling out with several key customers an “Ask Watson” feature that will greet and offer help through various channels:  Web chats, email, smartphone apps and SMS. Some customers will eventually equip the service with voice recognition from a partner such as Siri or Nuance. The guinea pigs include Australia’s ANZ Bank, Nielsen, Celcom, IHS, and Royal Bank of Canada.

Each of the beta customers will come up with their own interface and branding for the service, and many will begin with internal employee use only, but for some this will be the first time the general public will get to query Watson directly with questions such as “Hey Watson, how do I diversify my 401(k)?” or “Hey Watson, what are the flights between Dallas and the West Coast that I can book with miles?” or “Hey Watson, how many gigabytes do I have left on my mobile plan?” IBM says we’ll start to see the first Watson-powered consumer apps in the second half of the year.

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