Cognitive intelligent personal assistants obtain a multitude of contextual information, perform smart tasks, and provide services on behalf of humans based on user input, context and preferences. Personal assistants acquire information from many different data sources, including the web (e.g., weather alerts, breaking news, traffic conditions, or stock prices) as well as personal information stored in smartphones (e.g., location information, calendar events, contacts or to-do lists). Based on the obtained information, cognitive intelligent personal assistants infer things, recommend suitable recipes, select appropriate music, buy items when they go on sale, and perform tasks in the realm of digital ecosystems.