At the World Economic Forum in Davos, IBM announced a strategic partnership with global technology group e& to embed agentic AI into mission-critical governance, risk and compliance systems. Powered by IBM watsonx Orchestrate and integrated with IBM OpenPages, the solution was proven in an eight-week proof of concept led by IBM’s Client Engineering team and delivered in collaboration with Gulf Business Machines. The initiative enables employees and auditors at e& to access and interpret complex legal and regulatory data via AI agents that can reason, orchestrate tasks and provide traceable, governance-aligned recommendations. This early enterprise-scale deployment marks one of the first action-oriented, governed AI implementations in the Middle East and Europe and sets a benchmark for regional expansion of trusted, explainable AI.

IBM has introduced Enterprise Advantage, an asset-based consulting service designed to help organizations build, govern and scale their own internal AI platforms. Leveraging technology from IBM Consulting Advantage—IBM’s in-house AI-powered delivery platform—and a marketplace of industry-specific AI agents, the service enables clients to redesign workflows, integrate AI with existing cloud and on-premise systems, and deploy agentic applications without altering their core infrastructure. Early adopters such as Pearson are already using Enterprise Advantage to combine human expertise with digital assistants for decision-making, while manufacturing firms have advanced generative AI prototypes into secured, governed deployments. IBM reports that internal use of Consulting Advantage has boosted consultant productivity by up to 50%, illustrating the potential for measurable ROI in client engagements.

In its most recent earnings commentary, IBM reported a 53% year-over-year increase in operating profit for its Infrastructure segment, driven by strong enterprise demand for AI-optimized mainframes and hybrid-cloud solutions. The company’s latest z17 mainframe, architected for AI inference workloads, saw record adoption in the third quarter, while Red Hat OpenShift deployments and watsonx integrations fueled infrastructure revenue. IBM attributes the profit jump to accelerated hybrid-cloud migrations by financial services, telecommunications and government clients seeking scalable, secure platforms for mission-critical applications. The robust margin performance in Infrastructure underscores IBM’s successful shift away from low-growth hardware services toward high-value, AI-ready systems.

New research from the IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed 2,000 C-suite executives across 33 countries and found that 79% expect AI to contribute significantly to revenue by 2030—up from 40% today. The study projects that organizations will shift 62% of AI spending toward innovation, driving a 42% increase in productivity and funding growth initiatives. However, only 24% of respondents have a clear roadmap for revenue-generating AI use cases, and 68% worry about integrating AI with core operations. IBM’s thought leadership emphasizes the need for strategic technology bets—such as multi-model AI architectures and quantum-enabled workflows—and highlights the importance of governance, workforce transformation and leadership adaptation to capture the full value of AI investments.