At the World Economic Forum in Davos, IBM announced a strategic collaboration with global technology group e& to deploy enterprise-grade agentic AI, powered by IBM watsonx Orchestrate, within e&’s policy, risk and compliance systems. The solution integrates more than 500 domain-specific tools and agents with IBM OpenPages and watsonx.governance, enabling auditors and employees to access legal and regulatory data with traceable, action-oriented AI. A joint proof of concept delivered in eight weeks by IBM’s Client Engineering team, Gulf Business Machines and e& demonstrated enterprise-scale reasoning, task orchestration and governance controls, setting a new regional benchmark for AI governance by design.

IBM Enterprise Advantage, launched January 19, 2026, is an asset-based consulting service that leverages IBM Consulting Advantage—an internal AI-powered delivery platform proven in over 150 client engagements—to help organizations build, govern and operate their own AI platforms. The service supports integration with major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), open- and closed-source models and IBM watsonx, delivering reusable AI assets and industry-specific agents. Early adopters, including Pearson and a global manufacturer, have used the service to prototype targeted AI use cases, align leadership on scalable strategies and deploy multi-model AI assistants in a secured, governed environment.

New research from the IBM Institute for Business Value, based on a survey of 2,007 C-suite executives across 33 geographies and 20 industries, finds that 79% expect AI to contribute significantly to revenue by 2030—up from 40% today—while only 24% have clarity on revenue sources. AI investment is projected to increase 150% by 2030, with a shift from 47% of spend on efficiency to 62% on innovation. Respondents anticipate a 42% boost in productivity, reinvesting gains into growth, and predict that small language models will surpass large language models. The report highlights gaps in quantum readiness—59% foresee quantum-enabled AI transforming industries, yet only 27% plan quantum adoption—and underscores the need for governance and workforce reskilling to capture AI’s full potential.