IBM has joined forces with global technology group e& to embed enterprise-grade agentic AI into mission-critical governance, risk and compliance systems. Unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the solution is built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate—leveraging more than 500 customizable AI tools—and integrates with IBM OpenPages to deliver traceable, policy-aligned responses. A joint proof of concept, delivered in just eight weeks by IBM’s Client Engineering team alongside Gulf Business Machines, demonstrated the ability of these AI agents to reason, orchestrate tasks and integrate with existing systems under robust governance controls. This represents one of the first large-scale agentic AI deployments in the Middle East, reinforcing IBM’s lead in trusted, explainable AI for regulated enterprises.

On January 19, 2026, IBM introduced Enterprise Advantage, an asset-based consulting service designed to help organizations build, govern and operate customized internal AI platforms at scale. Drawing on the company’s own AI-powered delivery platform, IBM Consulting Advantage, which has already supported over 150 client engagements and delivered up to 50% productivity gains for consultants, the new service provides a secured environment, shared standards and reusable AI assets. Early adopters—including a leading lifelong learning provider and a manufacturing group—have used Enterprise Advantage to identify high-value use cases, prototype agentic applications and deploy AI assistants across hybrid cloud infrastructures without disrupting existing technology investments.

IBM’s Infrastructure segment reported a 53% year-over-year increase in profit, driven by strong enterprise adoption of hybrid cloud solutions, AI-optimized mainframes and the recently launched z17 system tailored for inference workloads. Clients across financial services, telecommunications and healthcare are accelerating upgrades to benefit from the z17’s enhanced processing speeds and built-in AI capabilities. This surge in infrastructure profitability underscores IBM’s successful pivot away from low-margin IT services and highlights the strategic importance of specialized hardware in supporting next-generation AI deployments.

New research from the IBM Institute for Business Value reveals that 79% of surveyed C-suite executives expect AI to make a significant contribution to revenue by 2030, up from 40% today, and predict a 150% increase in AI investment over the next five years. Respondents expect AI-enabled productivity gains to rise by 42%, with 70% planning to reinvest those gains into growth initiatives. The study also finds that 62% of AI budgets will shift from efficiency to innovation by 2030, and 82% of organizations anticipate deploying multi-model AI architectures combining large and small language models. These insights offer a roadmap for investors assessing IBM’s leadership in hybrid cloud, AI governance and emerging quantum computing technologies.