International Business Machines is putting its Watson natural-language technology to the test with consumers on a wide scale for the first time. On the website of financial-services firm USAA, military customers will be able to use IBM's tool to ask questions and seek advice on transitioning back to civilian life. Famous for being a "Jeopardy!" game-show champion, Watson analyzes information and can answer questions in conversational English.

It's the biggest test yet of whether consumers will embrace Watson. IBM sees data analytics tools like Watson as a source of growth to counter declining demand for hardware that has led to nine quarters of falling sales.

- Bloomberg News