The Weather Channel app now lets you know when youre at flu risk via IBM Watson
- Monday, November 11th, 2019
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The Weather Company has teamed up with IBM to serve up flu risk predictions to users of it’s the Weather Channel app. The feature, which is partnered by CVS Pharmacy, makes use of IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) system, Watson, to provide information about the flu season, letting people know when they are most at risk of coming down with something.
Flu Insights, which is available within both the Android and iOS versions of The Weather Channel app, leverages AI and machine learning to provide users with notifications about the onset of the flu season, confirmed cases of flu outbreak, and if current conditions have increased risk of getting the flu. It also provides a 15-day flu forecast that displays the level of risk on each day, according to area. And includes illness prevention tips and flu reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Prior to developing the feature, The Weather Company commissioned a study in partnership with Morning Consult, finding that 83 per cent of people feel that avoiding the flu is important. However, 37 per cent of respondents said they do not get a flu shot. Breaking this down, 62 per cent of Baby Boomers say they always get a flu shot compared to just 23 per cent of Millennials.