IBM Corp. will use its Think 2026 conference today to outline a broad expansion of its enterprise artificial intelligence portfolio, positioning a new \u201cAI operating model\u201d as the next stage in its customers\u2019 march toward translating early investments into measurable returns.<\/p>\n
The announcements span agent orchestration, real-time data integration, hybrid cloud operations and digital sovereignty, reflecting what executives described as a shift away from isolated AI deployments toward systemic integration across the enterprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enterprises pulling ahead are not deploying more AI; they\u2019re redesigning how their business operates,\u201d IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said during a media briefing.<\/p>\n
IBM is framing AI as an operational transformation challenge rather than a model or tooling race, emphasizing its independence from AI models. The company is promoting a four-part architecture built around agents, data, automation and hybrid infrastructure, which it argues must work together to deliver value at scale.<\/p>\n
Krishna emphasized that most enterprise data remains internal, favoring IBM\u2019s focus on hybrid cloud. \u201cOver 70% of all data is still sitting inside the enterprise in systems that are core and germane to them,\u201d he said. AI strategies must therefore account for where data resides.<\/p>\n
A central piece of today\u2019s announcements is the evolution of watsonx Orchestrate \u2014 a platform for building, deploying and managing agents \u2014 into a multi-agent control plane spanning heterogeneous environments.<\/p>\n
IBM characterizes its orchestration layer as a unifying framework that integrates agents from multiple vendors, said Rob Thomas, senior vice president of software and chief commercial officer. \u201cIt\u2019s about the best agentic technology from any company in the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The strategy positions IBM as an integrator rather than a builder of foundation models. While the company its own foundation models called Granite, it emphasizes partnerships with model providers such as Anthropic PBC and OpenAI LLC, as well as major cloud platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe help put AI into the enterprise,\u201d Krishna said, describing IBM\u2019s role as orchestrating models, data and infrastructure while ensuring governance and security.<\/p>\n
That approach reflects a broader shift in the competitive landscape. Rather than competing directly with hyperscalers on infrastructure or foundation models, IBM is focusing on what it sees as the next layer of value: operational integration.<\/p>\n
Son of Bob<\/p>\n
IBM also introduced new capabilities in its \u201cProject Bob<\/a>\u201d platform, an AI-based tool system for enterprise software development lifecycles. New features are designed to support multimodel workflows across both cloud and on-premises environments.<\/p>\n IBM has deployed the technology internally and driven \u201cover $5 billion of productivity improvements,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n Data integration is another pillar of the strategy. Following its recent acquisition<\/a> of Confluent Inc., IBM is emphasizing real-time data pipelines as a prerequisite for effective AI coordination. The integration of streaming and batch data into watsonx.data is intended to provide agents with continuously updated context.<\/p>\n \u201cYour AI is only as good as your data,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cWe\u2019re leveraging real-time data to inform agents that run in the enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n The company is also expanding its Concert<\/a> platform, which applies AI to infrastructure operations and security. Initially focused on identifying vulnerabilities, the platform now embeds security management directly into developer workflows. It identifies and prioritizes risks as code is written and can generate automatic remediations to fix or patch vulnerable code.<\/p>\n Execuetives stressed that human oversight is still needed. \u201cNothing is completely hands off, but it is used as augmentation,\u201d Thomas said, describing how AI-generated fixes are reviewed before deployment.<\/p>\n Sovereign control<\/p>\n Asserting that security and sovereignty are emerging as critical themes in enterprise AI, particularly in regulated industries and government environments, IBM formally announced the general availability of Sovereign Core<\/a>, a platform announced early this year that supports AI deployments within tightly controlled, geographically bounded environments.<\/p>\n Thomas said early use cases center on organizations requiring air-gapped or fully localized infrastructure. The offering includes an extensible catalog that organizations can populate with their own applications or those from pre-vetted IBM, third-party and open-source partners.<\/p>\n Krishna framed sovereignty as a core requirement rather than an optional feature as AI becomes embedded in critical systems. \u201cThis way people can mix and match what\u2019s appropriate,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our strategy to go forward on AI.\u201d<\/p>\n Quantum advance<\/p>\n Outside the enterprise realm, IBM highlighted recent advances in quantum computing, including a collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic to simulate protein complexes containing more than 12,000 atoms. The milestone reflects growing confidence that quantum systems are moving beyond experimental phases.<\/p>\n The work is part of a broader push toward what IBM calls \u201cquantum-centric supercomputing,\u201d which combines quantum and classical systems to tackle complex problems in areas such as drug discovery. Marrying the two architectures is driving much of the current research into quantum processors.<\/p>\n \u201cQuantum is no longer a science lab experiment,\u201d Krishna said. \u201cPeople are doing real use cases of significant scale.\u201d<\/p>\n However, executives cautioned that large-scale commercial applications remain several years away. Krishna said meaningful enterprise impact is likely to emerge toward the end of the decade as hardware capabilities improve.<\/p>\n IBM executives were careful not to trumpet AI\u2019s transformational potential, choosing instead to emphasize the hard work that still needs to be done to make models scalable and reliable.<\/p>\n Krishna drew a parallel to previous technology cycles, arguing that initial innovation phases tend to center on infrastructure before moving up the stack. \u201cThe real value in every one of these comes with the applications and the deployment into enterprises,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Thomas compared the current state of AI to the early days of electrification, suggesting that current AI deployments resemble incremental productivity tools rather than transformative systems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s useful, but it\u2019s not really redefining how the company runs,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is about moving beyond light bulbs to things that are more fundamental to how a company operates.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo: Paul Gillin\/SiliconANGLE<\/p>\n Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with theCUBE community. Join theCUBE\u2019s Alumni Trust Network, where technology leaders connect, share intelligence and create opportunities.<\/p>\n 15M+ viewers of theCUBE videos, powering conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more About SiliconANGLE Media<\/p>\n SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation, uniting breakthrough technology, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE<\/a>, theCUBE Network<\/a>, theCUBE Research<\/a>, CUBE365<\/a>, theCUBE AI<\/a> and theCUBE SuperStudios \u2014 with flagship locations in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange \u2014 SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology and AI.<\/p>\n Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands that reach 15+ million elite tech professionals. Our new proprietary theCUBE AI Video Cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IBM Corp. will use its Think 2026 conference today to outline a broad expansion of its enterprise artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,18260,894,396],"class_list":{"0":"post-27523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-ibm-charts-ai-operating-model-to-move-enterprises-beyond-experimentation","11":"tag-paul-gillin","12":"tag-siliconangle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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