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Ai Gets Down To Business At Ibm Think 2025

Bonisiwe Shabane
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ai gets down to business at ibm think 2025

A Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 race car sat encased in glass at the center of the IBM Think 2025 conference in Boston this week, flanked by attendees and backlit by a glowing blue IBM... Its deep red chassis and aerodynamic curves attracted a steady stream of photos, but its presence was more than symbolic. According to IBM, the car generates over one million data points every second, capturing pressure, friction, temperature and velocity in real time. That information now fuels a personalized mobile experience for fans, powered by the IBM watsonx platform. The display opened the event, where the company laid out its position that AI is no longer speculative. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, hybrid cloud infrastructure and automation were presented not as future concepts, but as current capabilities that are reshaping operations at global enterprises.

Across keynotes and panels, speakers from industries as varied as defense, retail and finance described how foundational shifts in architecture, talent, data management and interoperability are already underway. Executives and engineers from PepsiCo, Meta, Lockheed Martin, The Heineken Company and BNP Paribas joined IBM leaders to share how artificial intelligence, quantum computing and automation are producing measurable results. “AI is the productivity engine,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and CEO. “AI unlocks the value in your data.” Discover expertly curated insights and news on AI, cloud and more in the weekly Think Newsletter. IBM Think 2025 wasn’t just a showcase — it was a signal.

The company is aligning its portfolio for the AI-first era. For CIOs, IBM’s message is clear: The future of enterprise IT is hybrid, intelligent, and orchestrated — and IBM wants to lead the way. This advice is triggered by what we heard at IBM Think 2025, but it applies to every technology and service provider. CIOs and technology leaders should: Stay tuned for updates from the Forrester blogs. Prefer watching instead of reading?

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The video and audio are in sync, so you can switch between them or control playback as needed. Enjoy Greyhound Standpoint insights in the format that suits you best. Join the conversation on social media using #GreyhoundStandpoint. At IBM Think 2025, held in Boston, the company doubled down on its enterprise-first AI narrative — not with flashy prototypes or viral demos, but with deeply technical, production-ready announcements aimed squarely at real-world... Across keynote stages, closed-door sessions, and analyst briefings, the message was consistent: AI is no longer a sideshow or science project. It’s becoming infrastructure.

And IBM, with its legacy in systems integration and governance-heavy deployments, is positioning itself as the execution layer for enterprise AI. Its most strategic reveal at the event was the introduction of a modular, enterprise-grade AI agent framework — a calculated pivot away from conversational gimmicks and toward deeply integrated, outcome-driven automation. Branded under watsonx Orchestrate, these agents are engineered to do more than chat — they’re built to act. Think HR workflows executed autonomously. Think IT tickets resolved across heterogeneous platforms. Think finance operations streamlined not by scripting, but by embedded intelligence.

At Greyhound Research, we believe this marks a decisive shift in the way AI is implemented — not layered on, but embedded within business architecture. Generative AI is no longer just an experimental topic: It’s become a core focus of enterprise strategy. Behind the scenes, companies are moving beyond proofs of concept and into the more challenging work of scaling infrastructure, establishing governance and delivering measurable outcomes. As the excitement settles, the center of gravity is shifting from innovation theater to operational reality. That shift requires less fanfare and more friction management, according to Bruno Aziza (pictured), group vice president for data, business intelligence and artificial intelligence at IBM Corp. IBM’s Bruno Aziza talks with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante about what’s possible when agents work across apps, clouds and workflows to drive real value.

“While there’s excitement, we now need to think about a true agentic strategy, which includes cost and governance,” he said. “We’re not talking about this as much because it’s not sexy, but I guarantee you the next six months, probably the next five years in fact, are going to be about that.” Aziza, along with executives and partners from companies including PepsiCo Inc., Heineken N.V., United Services Automobile Association, IBM and leading analysts and data strategists, spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante at IBM Think, during an... They discussed IBM’s agentic strategy, the challenges of scaling generative AI in enterprise environments and the operational frameworks needed to make AI work in production. (* Disclosure below.) The IBM Think AI 2025 conference is a pivotal moment, setting the stage for the future of AI in enterprise environments.

From cutting-edge AI agents to the practical application of quantum computing, the event is a complete wake-up call for businesses still contending with how to make AI work for them. In this article, we'll break down the key takeaways and explore how these trends are set to transform business as we know it. The Rise of AI Agents: Autonomy and Efficiency As I reflect on the IBM Watson conference I attended and watched in 2017 at the T-Mobile Stadium, “World of Watson” in Las Vegas, wow, have times changed! I was in awe of Ginni Rometty, who led IBM as Chairman, President, and CEO, on stage talking about the world of AI and our future. The conference at the time was focused on IBM's AI products and Watson, their QA computer AI system.

Fast forward, now AI agents are no longer just chatbots, they're autonomous systems capable of orchestrating workflows and taking decisive actions without human intervention. For example, PepsiCo has deployed 1,500 AI agents that collectively save thousands of hours in operations. However, there’s a new challenge: agent sprawl. Managing a large number of autonomous agents without proper orchestration can lead to inefficiencies. IBM’s WatsonX Orchestrate tackles this challenge by ensuring coordination among digital workers. Humans and experts do need to stay in the loop, but the new way of working is incredible.

Generative Computing: Moving Past Prompt Engineering Innovators from Ferrari, Meta, Lumen and other major players took the stage at IBM Think 2025 this week to share how they’re using AI to solve real-world problems—from deploying purpose-built AI to extracting real... What emerging tech breakthroughs could shape your industry next? Find out with the sharpest takes to come out of Think 2025. Have you ever seen a fuel-injected data processing machine that can travel at 230 mph? If you’re on-site at IBM Think, head to the demo floor to see the Scuderia Ferrari HP Formula 1 race car.

With sensors that detect sense heat, pressure, friction and fuel, this machine generates more than one million data points per second. It also explains why IBM’s Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna invited Scuderia Ferrrari HP's team principal, Frédéric Vasseur, onstage this morning during his keynote kicking off Think 2025. “AI is the productivity engine,” Krishna explained. “AI unlocks the value in your data.” In this case, IBM watsonx is using generative AI to transform the torrent of track data that Scuderia Ferrari HP collects into a new, more personalized and... This, in turn, helps Ferrari (and its partners) increase engagement with its core customers. Those core customers or fans are shifting gears, too.

“It’s not just the historic fans anymore,” Vasseur said. New fans are “more focused on the name of the driver’s girlfriend than lap times.” That core fan base has tripled in the past five years and now counts more than 390 million followers... That’s 10 times the population of Canada. Understanding what those newcomers want is becoming just as important as winning on the track. IBM is giving its customers a tidal wave of watsonx AI news at its THINK 2025 conference, saying that AI agents are shifting from AI that chats with you to systems that work for... It wants to supply the AI system building components, saying AI agents “must be able to work seamlessly across the vast web of applications, data and systems that underpin today’s complex enterprise technology stacks.

Which means that orchestration, integration and automation are necessary to move agents from novelty into operation.” Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna stated: “The era of AI experimentation is over. Today’s competitive advantage comes from purpose-built AI integration that drives measurable business outcomes. IBM is equipping enterprises with hybrid technologies that cut through complexity and accelerate production-ready AI implementations.” There are a large number of announcements to do with IBM’s watsonx AI and data offerings, also covering AI agent workflows, code assistance, feeding unstructured data to RAG apps, expanded GPU and accelerator coverage,... Let’s dive in to see what it’s introducing:

IBM is evolving watsonx.data to help organizations use unstructured data, found in contracts, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. to have more accurate, effective AI. A watsonx.data development will bring together an open data lakehouse with data fabric capabilities, like data lineage tracking and governance, to help customers unify, govern, and access data across silos, formats, and clouds. 10 Best Crypto Exchanges in India December 2025 Nansen AI Introduces Joint Venture Protocols 10 Crypto Exchanges with the Lowest Fees: December 2025 Comparison

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The Video And Audio Are In Sync, So You Can

The video and audio are in sync, so you can switch between them or control playback as needed. Enjoy Greyhound Standpoint insights in the format that suits you best. Join the conversation on social media using #GreyhoundStandpoint. At IBM Think 2025, held in Boston, the company doubled down on its enterprise-first AI narrative — not with flashy prototypes or viral demos, but with deeply technical,...