The developers of a super computer that can think for itself, process data in seconds and even learn from its mistakes say it will revolutionise business on a global scale.

IBM's computer, called Watson, shot to fame when it took out American quiz show Jeopardy in 2011.

Now the company says the cloud-based technology is set to revolutionise the way companies interact with their customers.

"I think it's going to make a dramatic impact on government services, the finance sector, telecommunications, health care, pretty much every sector that we work in," IBM engineer Glen Wightwick said.

The size of eight refrigerators, Watson is super smart, understanding human speech, crunching problems, understanding data and giving the best answer.

John Gordon, the vice-president of IBM Watson Solutions, says it can also learn from its own mistakes within seconds.

"Just like you and I do, every time we go into different a situation with a good or bad result, it helps us inform what we're going to do next, so we use that with Watson so it can make decisions," he said.

He says Watson is a new type of computer system and marks the beginning of an era of cognitive computing.

"In the past, where we used to program computers and teach them rules about how to work," Mr Gordon said.

ANZ becomes one of the first to sign up

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IBM touts super computer Watson as future of business; ANZ bank signs up