At the World Economic Forum in Davos, global technology group e& and IBM announced a strategic collaboration to embed agentic AI into e&’s core governance, risk and compliance systems. Built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate and integrated with IBM OpenPages, the solution comprises more than 500 customizable AI tools and domain-specific agents. In an eight-week joint proof-of-concept delivered by IBM, GBM and e&, the platform demonstrated enterprise-scale reasoning and task orchestration under real-world conditions, enabling auditors to retrieve and interpret complex regulatory information with full traceability and governance controls.

IBM today introduced Enterprise Advantage, an asset-based consulting service combining IBM Consulting Advantage—its internal AI-powered delivery platform—with prebuilt AI agents and reusable assets to help clients build, govern and operate AI platforms at scale. The service supports Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, IBM watsonx and both open- and closed-source models, enabling enterprises to leverage existing infrastructure. Early adopters include a major manufacturer that identified high-value use cases, tested targeted prototypes and deployed agentic assistants in a secured environment, and a lifelong learning company using the platform to merge human expertise with AI-driven decision assistants.

New research from the IBM Institute for Business Value shows that 79% of surveyed C-suite executives expect AI to contribute significantly to revenue by 2030, up from 40% today, and predict AI investment will grow 150% over the same period. Key findings include a shift of AI spend from 47% efficiency-focused today to 62% innovation-driven by 2030, projected productivity gains of 42%, and 67% of respondents expecting AI to eliminate current resource and skills constraints. While 82% anticipate a multi-model AI landscape, only 28% have clarity on the specific models required, highlighting a strategic opportunity for IBM’s hybrid-cloud and AI consulting services.

Following the spin-out of its low-margin infrastructure unit, IBM has refocused on hybrid cloud and AI, reporting double-digit growth in its software segment driven by automation and AI solutions such as watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift. Its consulting business returned to growth last quarter by accelerating client migrations from pilot AI initiatives into production. Mainframe demand also surged, with the new z17 system—optimized for AI inference—driving strong adoption. These business trends, combined with IBM’s multi-front quantum computing roadmap, position the company as a diversified provider of enterprise-grade AI and hybrid-cloud offerings.