Macy’s has partnered with IBM Watson to enhance consumer shopping experience.

An AI mobile shopping assistant tool has been launched by Macy’s at 10 of its stores nationwide. The famous and popular American department store chain developed its shopping assistant called “Macy’s on Call” with IBM Watson. The mobile companion is a cognitive mobile web tool designed to help shoppers as they navigate through Macy’s stores.

Customers can use their smartphone assistant to answer their questions.

This is the pilot stage for Macy’s mobile shopping assistant. The mobile tool, which was created in partnership with IMB Watson through intelligent engagement platform Satisfi, will be tested throughout the pilot stage at the 10 stores.

Via the mobile browser on the consumer’s personal device, they can ask questions related to the Macy’s store. For instance, a mobile customer could ask where a particular brand, department or service is located in the participating store. The assistant, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) essentially acts like a sales associate, answering their questions. It uses natural language and provides feedback within a matter of seconds.

A Spanish language feature will eventually be added to broaden its user base.

The mobile shopping assistant is part of Macy’s strategy to reinvent its business and improve sales.

Macy’s Group Vice President of Digital Media Strategy Serena Potter told the Associated Press that “We want to improve the shopping experience. We want the customers to shop at Macy’s and come back.”

The goal of the retail giant is to boost sales while freeing up employees so they can cater to more complicated customer requests.

According to the vice president of IBM Watson, Stephen Gold, once trained, the technology can register if customers become frustrated based on their answers and it can alert a sales associate. This technology is similar to AI the company is working on with other brands like North Face and 1-800 Flowers. In these cases, however, the AI tech answers questions on their websites.

Macy’s is working hard to improve its sales, which have plummeted. The company has cut its full-year profit and revenue outlook for the year and has slashed thousands of jobs. Implementing its new mobile shopping assistant, Macy’s on Call, is part of its business reinvention strategy.

A software kit developed by Medic Mobile can be used in any type of environment to support healthcare.

Mobile Health (mHealth) provided by Medic Mobile is improving healthcare accessibility and quality in Africa. Using VMware, the American non-profit technology company, specializing in mHealth, developed a special software toolkit. This toolkit can be used in just about any environment and supports any language. It also functions with internet connectivity and without it, in the cloud or locally.

The software toolkit is giving African’s access to quality healthcare in the remotest parts of the continent.

The web and mobile tools work on a basic cellular phone. The software is giving health workers the ability to track disease outbreaks, register pregnancies, communicate emergencies, communicate with patients and keep stock of medicines.

The Medic Mobile solution is Linux-based and is made possible through a mobile network virtualized by VMware, running on VMware Player. The toolkit enables healthcare workers to gather and transmit patient data wirelessly via basic cell phones to the central clinic. This significantly cuts down on travel time and cost while making the delivery of quality healthcare better.

Medic Mobile CEO Josh Nesbit stated that the organization’s vision “is that the things that we know save lives should be made accessible to everybody, no matter where they are, no matter how much money they make, no matter to what social group they belong. The vision is global health equality.”

Since the mobile health technology has been implemented, healthcare has improved in Africa.

For instance, in Uganda, infant mortality rates continue to decrease every year. One of the major reasons for this is community health workers can provide better care. They can register pregnancies through a simple text message to the Medic Mobile system. They can provide details including the patient’s name, estimated due date and risk factors. A patient ID is automatically generated by the system and sends automated reminders to both health workers and patients, regarding scheduled appointments. If the appointment is missed by the patient, the system will notify the health worker to followup with the patient.

Presently, over 9,000 healthcare workers are using mobile health tools from Medic Mobile to aid over five million people in 23 developing countries. Using these tools, the healthcare workers are achieving solid results.