Think about when a digital business marries up with what I'll call 'digital intelligence.' It is the dawn of a new era about being a 'cognitive' business. When every product, every service, how you run your company can actually have a piece that learns and thinks as part of it, you will be a cognitive business.

Ginni Rometty’s quote introduces the concept of a digital business evolving into a cognitive business. She envisions a future where businesses not only utilize digital technologies but integrate digital intelligence—the ability of systems to learn, adapt, and make decisions autonomously. This shift marks the beginning of a new era where businesses can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance every aspect of their operations.

By highlighting the importance of digital intelligence, Rometty emphasizes the transformative potential of technologies that enable businesses to go beyond basic automation. She suggests that businesses will evolve from just offering products and services to creating systems that learn and think as part of their core functionality. This means that the future of business involves the fusion of human ingenuity with the capabilities of cognitive systems that can adapt to new data and conditions in real-time.

The origin of this idea stems from Rometty’s leadership at IBM, where she championed the development of AI-powered systems like Watson. Her focus has been on helping businesses understand how integrating intelligent technologies can reshape industries by providing them with smarter, more efficient ways to operate and serve customers. In this context, being a cognitive business means having a technological foundation that evolves with time and continuously improves through data-driven insights.

Ultimately, Rometty’s quote points to the future of businesses that leverage digital intelligence to enhance their agility, decision-making, and innovation. It’s not just about using technology to automate processes but about embedding learning and cognition into every product, service, and organizational process, creating businesses that are truly intelligent and adaptive.