The commercialization of cognitive systems is impacting both the consumer and enterprise worlds; in effect changing the way people interact with computers along with the methods for data analysis. In short, with the ability to ingest, analyze, and summarize massive data sets and facilitate self-service analytics, intelligent decision support, and smart advisory systems via the application of various artificial intelligence (AI) technologies — including natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and other intelligent reasoning capabilities — cognitive computing is starting to transform information-intensive industries.