In a significant announcement at the annual THINK event held in Armonk, New York, IBM unveiled a suite of advanced hybrid technologies aimed at overcoming the challenges businesses face in scaling enterprise AI. These innovations promise to empower businesses to craft and deploy AI agents leveraging their own enterprise data, effectively bridging the gap between AI experimentation and operational AI.
IBM forecasts that by 2028, over a billion applications will emerge, compelling businesses to adapt to increasingly fragmented environments. This evolution necessitates seamless integration, orchestration, and a state of data readiness. A recent IBM CEO study underscores this trend, revealing that business leaders anticipate AI investment growth to more than double in the next two years. However, despite the enthusiasm, only 25% of AI initiatives have realized the expected return on investment (ROI), largely due to disconnected technology infrastructures.
IBM is responding by merging hybrid technologies with deep industry expertise from IBM Consulting to facilitate the operationalization of AI. This approach is designed to cut through complexity and accelerate production-ready AI deployments. Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM, emphasized that the era of AI experimentation is over, and the focus must shift to purpose-built AI integration that drives tangible business outcomes.
Building AI Agents with watsonx Orchestrate
As AI agents transition from conversational tools to proactive systems that work for enterprises, integrating them across diverse settings poses a challenge. IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate offers a comprehensive suite of agent capabilities designed to address this challenge. This includes:
- Build-your-own-agent in under five minutes: This feature provides tools for users of all skill levels, from no-code to pro-code, to integrate, customize, and deploy AI agents efficiently.
- Pre-built domain agents: These are specialized for domains such as HR, sales, and procurement, along with utility agents for tasks like web research and calculations.
- Integration with 80+ leading enterprise applications: Collaborations with providers like Adobe, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday ensure seamless integration across platforms.
- Agent orchestration and observability: These capabilities manage the coordination of multiple agents and tools, ensuring optimal performance monitoring, model optimization, and governance.
Additionally, IBM is launching the Agent Catalog in watsonx Orchestrate, offering over 150 agents and tools from IBM and partners like Box, MasterCard, Oracle, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and more. This catalog includes agents for tasks like prospect discovery in Salesforce’s Agentforce and conversational HR agents for Slack.
Addressing Integration Challenges with webMethods Hybrid Integration
The rapid adoption of AI has underscored the integration challenges faced by enterprises relying on a patchwork of APIs, applications, and systems. IBM introduces webMethods Hybrid Integration, a next-generation solution that employs agent-driven automation to manage integrations across hybrid cloud environments. According to a Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact study, organizations using webMethods have achieved a 176% ROI over three years, with benefits such as reduced downtime, time savings on projects, and improved security posture.
Harnessing Unstructured Data for AI
Unstructured data, often found in contracts and spreadsheets, holds immense potential for driving AI. IBM’s evolution of watsonx.data aims to activate this data through an open data lakehouse and data fabric capabilities, enabling better governance and data unification. This integration promises 40% more accurate AI outcomes compared to conventional methods.
IBM is also introducing watsonx.data integration and intelligence tools to orchestrate and extract insights from data. These tools, complemented by IBM’s acquisition of DataStax, provide powerful vector search capabilities for generative AI. New advancements in content-aware storage on IBM Fusion further facilitate fast information extraction for AI applications.
Scaling AI Infrastructure
IBM is launching the IBM LinuxONE 5 platform, designed to process a staggering 450 billion AI inference operations per day. This platform features state-of-the-art AI accelerators and advanced security offerings, including quantum-safe encryption technology. It also promises significant cost and energy consumption reductions, making it an attractive option for enterprises looking to optimize their AI infrastructure.
Collaborations with AMD, CoreWeave, Intel, and NVIDIA expand IBM’s offerings for compute-intensive workloads, ensuring businesses have access to the latest technologies for AI-enhanced data processing.
Industry Reactions and Testimonials
Several industry leaders have expressed optimism about IBM’s advancements. Avid Solutions’ CEO, Malcolm Adams, highlighted the impact of AI on the intelligent workforce, while BNP Paribas’ CTO, Jean-Michel Garcia, emphasized the importance of resilient cloud foundations for scaling AI. Other organizations, including Honda, Lockheed Martin, and PepsiCo, have also lauded the potential of IBM’s AI solutions to transform their operations and deliver more personalized services.
Conclusion
IBM’s recent announcements at THINK 2025 mark a pivotal step in the evolution of enterprise AI. By providing robust tools and infrastructure to integrate and scale AI across various platforms, IBM is setting the stage for businesses to harness the full potential of AI, driving innovation, efficiency, and meaningful business outcomes. As enterprises continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, IBM’s commitment to trust, transparency, and inclusivity will be crucial in shaping the future of AI. For more details, visit the IBM Newsroom on their official website.
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