IBM Unveils New Hybrid Technologies at THINK 2025 to Empower Enterprise AI
In a significant announcement at IBM’s annual THINK event held in Armonk, New York, on May 6, 2025, IBM revealed a suite of groundbreaking hybrid technologies designed to address long-standing challenges in scaling enterprise artificial intelligence (AI). These innovations are set to enable businesses to develop and implement AI agents using their enterprise data, marking a significant step forward in AI integration within the enterprise environment.
The Growing Demand for Enterprise AI
IBM’s projections indicate a surge in the development of over one billion applications by 2028, creating a pressing need for businesses to scale efficiently across increasingly fragmented environments. To address this, seamless integration, comprehensive orchestration, and data readiness are crucial components for success.
A recent IBM CEO study highlights that business leaders anticipate AI investment growth to more than double in the upcoming two years. Most enterprises are actively adopting AI agents and preparing to scale them. However, the rapid pace of these investments has led to a fragmented technology landscape, with only 25% of AI initiatives achieving the expected return on investment.
Leveraging Hybrid Technologies for Operational AI
IBM is leveraging its hybrid technologies, agent capabilities, and industry-specific expertise through IBM Consulting to help businesses operationalize AI effectively. According to Arvind Krishna, IBM’s Chairman and CEO, "The era of AI experimentation is over. Today’s competitive advantage comes from purpose-built AI integration that drives measurable business outcomes." IBM is equipping enterprises with hybrid technologies that simplify complexity and accelerate production-ready AI implementations.
Comprehensive AI Agent Capabilities with Watsonx Orchestrate
As AI agents evolve from interactive chatbots to systems performing tasks for users, enterprises face challenges integrating them across diverse environments, applications, and data. IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate offers a comprehensive suite of enterprise-ready agent capabilities to facilitate this integration. The portfolio includes:
- Build-your-own-agent in under five minutes: This tool allows users to integrate, customize, and deploy agents using a range of tools, from no-code to pro-code, accommodating various user needs.
- Pre-built domain agents: These are specialized in areas such as human resources, sales, and procurement, alongside utility agents for simpler tasks like web research and calculations.
- Integration with leading enterprise applications: IBM’s platform supports over 80 applications from providers like Adobe, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday.
- Agent orchestration and observability: This feature manages multi-agent, multi-tool coordination for complex projects, including performance monitoring, guardrails, model optimization, and governance throughout the agent lifecycle.
IBM is also introducing an Agent Catalog in watsonx Orchestrate to simplify access to over 150 agents and pre-built tools from IBM and its partners, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, and others.
Overcoming Integration Challenges with webMethods Hybrid Integration
Despite the accelerating adoption of AI, integration remains a significant challenge. Enterprises often rely on a patchwork of APIs, applications, and systems across on-premises and multi-cloud environments, many of which are not designed to work seamlessly together. In response, IBM is launching webMethods Hybrid Integration, a next-generation solution that replaces rigid workflows with intelligent, agent-driven automation. This service helps manage integrations across apps, APIs, B2B partners, events, gateways, and file transfers in hybrid cloud environments.
An independent Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact (TEI) study found that organizations using webMethods integration capabilities achieved a 176% return on investment (ROI) over three years, alongside benefits like reduced training costs and improved security.
Unlocking the Power of Unstructured Data for Generative AI
Unstructured data, often found in contracts, spreadsheets, and presentations, represents a vastly underutilized resource in enterprises. IBM is advancing watsonx.data to activate this data, driving more accurate and effective AI outcomes. The new watsonx.data unifies an open data lakehouse with data fabric capabilities, enabling organizations to govern and activate data across silos, formats, and clouds. This integration is shown to enhance AI accuracy by 40% compared to conventional methods.
IBM is also introducing watsonx.data integration and watsonx.data intelligence, AI-powered tools designed to extract deep insights from unstructured data. These tools will be available as standalone products, offering clients choice and modularity.
Scaling AI Infrastructure with IBM LinuxONE 5
IBM is set to launch IBM LinuxONE 5, its most secure and performant Linux platform for data, applications, and trusted AI, capable of processing up to 450 billion AI inference operations per day. Innovations include state-of-the-art AI accelerators, advanced security offerings, and significant reductions in costs and power consumption. IBM is expanding collaborations with AMD, CoreWeave, Intel, and NVIDIA to provide solutions for compute-intensive workloads and AI-enhanced data.
Looking Ahead: IBM’s Commitment to Enterprise AI
IBM’s announcements at THINK 2025 underscore its commitment to equipping enterprises with the tools and technologies needed to harness the full potential of AI. By addressing integration challenges, activating unstructured data, and scaling AI infrastructure, IBM is paving the way for businesses to achieve significant, measurable outcomes through AI.
For more information on these developments, visit the IBM Newsroom.
About IBM
IBM is a global leader in hybrid cloud and AI solutions, providing consulting expertise to clients in over 175 countries. IBM is dedicated to helping organizations capitalize on data insights, streamline processes, and gain competitive advantages. With innovations in AI, quantum computing, and industry-specific cloud solutions, IBM offers open and flexible options to clients, supported by its commitment to trust, transparency, and inclusivity. For further details, visit www.ibm.com.
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