Return to Campus and Work with Watson Works

The current worldwide health crisis poses challenges for a broad range of workplaces, businesses, and institutions. Everyone is struggling in their activities and on their premises to prevent the spread of this very infectious and dangerous airborne disease. Although the global pandemic is still ongoing, governments around the world are gradually easing the lockdown, and businesses and higher education institutions are planning to bring students, faculty, and staff back to campus this fall. These businesses and schools, while eager to get back to the new normal, want to do so not just in a safe and effective way, but also in a manner that is compatible with the new COVID-19 pandemic return to work requirements.

To help ensure a safe return to the workplace/campus or public space, IBM has introduced Watson Works. The Watson Works solution is a set of products, available today for COVID-19 return-to-workplace efforts, which embeds Watson’s AI models and applications to help guard the health, safety, and productivity of people in a changing workplace. It provides essential capabilities to support critical decisions in workplace re-entry, facilities management, workplace safety, contact tracing and care management, and customer and employee care. Integrated capabilities and data flow provide insights to employers and stakeholders need to help employees and students return to work/campus with confidence.

As reopening plans take shape, businesses and institutions must: Set a re-entry strategy that is comprehensive across people, process, technology, and data

Watson Work closely monitors and provides AI-powered solutions for the following circumstances:

with real-time data collected from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile phones, and cameras, on-site managers can optimize space allocation, arrange for cleaning, and monitor social distancing and crowding. For example, Watson Works can monitor who is using the spaces and when to configure the seating to meet social distancing guidelines and make the most of outdoor spaces.

site monitoring and management of temperature, occupancy, face mask detection, and social distancing. This implies that Watson Works provides businesses evidence-based decisions about whether employees can or should return to the workplace. It notes when certain worksites or offices should remain closed. It uses current, multiple sources for analysis and collection of data.

Watson Works puts technology in the hands of users in the form of an app so that they can document symptoms, signal their need for services and participate in contact tracing interviews to identify others who were potentially exposed. For instance, IBM Watson Care Manager supports human-centered contact tracing through structured interviews and provides care teams a platform for supporting the complete needs of individuals affected by COVID-19 and beyond.

Using Watson’s Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities in virtual agents and BOTS employers can deliver fast and accurate answers about COVID-19, find out the best time to arrive at the office to avoid overcrowding, provide HR questions and other related daily activities.

IBM Return-to-Workplace Advisor is a key component of the IBM Watson Works solution, and it is designed to assist businesses in re-opening the workplace, with a focus on employee health. The solution includes a command center analytics application that is designed to assist organizations in assessing worksite and community risk data in near real-time – helping to identify company locations where conditions have been met to return to the workplace. It also provides individuals with an employee support application designed to answer questions about COVID-19, self-report symptoms, and communicate return-to-work status.

As people may be required to present their health status to return to public places, organizations are looking for solutions that can help calculate the risk of COVID-19 while protecting privacy. Powered by blockchain, IBM Digital Health Pass is designed to help organizations verify an individual’s health status while protecting personal privacy. Individuals can manage their information through an encrypted digital wallet on their smartphone and control what they share – and for what purpose – while organizations can design business rules and determine responses for each health status they review.