LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2014: Virginia Rometty, CEO of IBM, outlined her company’s vision of how mobile services and enterprise technology will be revolutionised through the use of big data in last night’s Mobile World Live keynote.

“I think this is both an exciting time but this is also a disruptive time for everyone in industry,” Rometty said, before citing three historic shifts that will have important implications for the mobile sector: data, cloud and engagement.

Data is now “the world’s new natural resource” and will become a key competitive advantage for every industry, according to Rometty. “I think we will look back at this time and see data as a resource that drove the twenty-first century,” she said.

In addition, cloud computing will change how services are delivered, while social and mobile technology is already impacting how people engage with businesses and each other.

With these shifts, companies will need to offer “speed, personalisation and security and trust” to meet customers’ expectations — with analytics playing a major role.

Rometty predicted a new era of “cognitive computing”, which IBM aims to drive by offering its Watson supercomputing capabilities to businesses and developers via the cloud.

The IBM chief announced the Watson Mobile Developer Challenge for developers to build mobile apps that make use of the capabilities of the supercomputer, which learns from interactions and can answer complex questions.

Three winning developers will receive design consulting and support from IBM to bring their technology to market.