As IBM Think 2025 kicks off in Boston, the tech giant has revealed its agentic AI gameplan.
The gameplan is to combine hybrid technologies (both on-premise and in the cloud), AI agent capabilities, and a high level of support via IBM Consulting to empower businesses in operationalizing AI.
As such, IBM hopes to place workflows across disparate systems, have AI agents run across them, and enable a more connected enterprise ecosystem.
“The era of AI experimentation is over. Today’s competitive advantage comes from purpose-built AI integration that drives measurable business outcomes,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM.
IBM is equipping enterprises with hybrid technologies that cut through complexity and accelerate production-ready AI implementations.
Key to that gameplan is the “comprehensive suite” of enterprise-ready agent capabilities in watsonx Orchestrate, which IBM will support enterprises in putting into action.
However, IBM suggests that customers can build their first AI agents “in under five minutes”, with “tooling that makes it easier to integrate, customize, and deploy agents built on any framework.”
The enterprise tech stalwart will also offer agents specialized in domains such as HR, sales, and procurement.
Moreover, it will provide starter agents – or “utility agents – that can accelerate simple tasks, like web research and calculations.
All of this is available through watsonx Orchestrate.
Integration is also a key focus, and according to IBM, its agents can integrate with “80+ leading enterprise applications from providers like Adobe, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce Agentforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and Workday.”
Yet, its agents can also collaborate with the AI agents delivered by these third-party providers.
Indeed, its orchestration capability allows clients to direct tasks to the appropriate AI solutions from various vendors.
Krishna believes this capability comes at a critical time for the industry. “As AI adoption accelerates, integration remains a major challenge,” he said.
Most enterprises rely on a patchwork of APIs, apps, and systems spread across on-prem and multi-cloud environments – many of which weren’t built to work together.
However, IBM aims to change the game with watsonx Orchestrate.
With Forrester projecting 176 percent ROI over three years by automating the integration of apps, APIs, events, and more across the hybrid cloud, IBM believes it has unpacked a winning strategy.
Agent Catalog: A Highlight of watsonx Orchestrate
While watsonx Orchestrate is a deep offering, IBM is also introducing a new Agent Catalog to simplify access to 150+ agents and pre-built tools from both IBM and its ecosystem of partners.
The catalog includes a sales agent for pinpointing and importing prospects. Yet, most interestingly, this agent is available in Salesforce’s Agentforce.
Additionally, the catalog features a conversational HR agent that IBM customers can embed into Slack.
Such collaborations between high-profile brands like IBM and Salesforce will be fascinating to watch as agent interoperability becomes a major trend in enterprise tech.
IBM Introduces Solutions to Streamline Data Orchestration & Analysis
IBM is advancing its enterprise data management capabilities with the launch of watsonx.data.
watsonx.data combines an open data lakehouse with data fabric capabilities – including data lineage tracking and governance – to help organizations unify, govern, and activate data across silos, formats, and clouds.
IBM is also introducing solutions to streamline data orchestration and analysis:
- watsonx.data integration – A single-interface tool for managing data across diverse formats and pipelines.
- watsonx.data intelligence – An AI-powered system for extracting deep insights from unstructured data.
Both offerings will be available as standalone products, with select capabilities integrated within watsonx.data.
More Announcements from IBM
To further bolster its data management portfolio, IBM has announced its intent to acquire DataStax, expanding vector search capabilities for clients.
Meanwhile, IBM has further strengthened its AI strategy by integrating watsonx as an API provider within Meta’s Llama Stack.
According to the company, this will enable enterprises to deploy scalable, open generative AI solutions more effectively.
Source: https://www.cxtoday.com/
