FORT WORTH, Texas — If the Internet was the last transformative technology to affect business and people’s social lives, then cognitive technology–think the computer named “Watson” that beat the Jeopardy champions last year–will be the next one, according to one business futurist.Speaking before about 150 attendees at a Pinnacle users’ conference, Atlanta-based business consultant Jack Shaw said that after the advent of personal computers (PCs) in the 1980s, the client-server or mainframe integration to PCs in the 1990s and the Internet in the 2000s, “cognitive systems” or technology that can ultimately assess and make decisions with more competence than humans will be the next step.

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