In an industry first, the IBM-owned Weather Company is integrating the firms Watson AI product into advertising, enabling consumers to interact, asking questions via voice or text and receiving relevant information in return.

Watson Ads, the new format The Weather Company is offering, is designed to create a one-to-one connection with the consumer while also providing marketers with consumer and product insights faster than ever before, revealing connections that were previously invisible to data scientists.

IBMs Watson technology can process natural language requests, and is capable of reasoning, learning and conducting meaningful interactions with humans. By leveraging Watson, marketers will be able to better understand brand perception, help consumers make more informed decisions at the point of consideration, improve the customer experience and use data more effectively.

“The dawn of cognitive advertising is truly a watershed moment,” said Domenic Venuto, general manager for consumer products at The Weather Company. “Now as part of IBM, we have even more tools and technologies at our disposal to inspire innovations within advertising, artificial intelligence and storytelling.

“This is a huge opportunity to expose consumers to all of the surprising and delightful experience that Watson has in store for them – and to make advertising a truly valuable interaction for both our fans and our marketing partners, which is always our goal.”

Brands including Unilever, Campbell Soup Company and GSK Consumer Healthcare have already signed up to collaborate with The Weather Company on Watson Ads.