Ibm S Ai Strategy Ecosystem Collaboration Ai Native Products

IBM Corp. is embracing artificial intelligence as part of a broader ecosystem strategy, recognizing that businesses need flexibility in how they adopt and deploy AI-native solutions across different platforms. Rather than relying on a single approach, companies must integrate AI solutions that work across a diverse range of platforms and partners, according to Mohamad Ali (pictured), senior vice president and head of IBM... IBM’s Mohamad Ali talks with theCUBE about AI integration, IBM’s ecosystem strategy and how businesses can adopt AI-native solutions. “Our clients need a variety of technologies,” Ali said. “They need open-source technologies; they need closed-source technologies.

They need technologies from our partners like SAP, AWS, Microsoft, Salesforce [and] Palo Alto, and that has become our new strategy … this ecosystem, this community, once again of products.” Ali spoke with theCUBE’s Dave Vellante and Savannah Peterson at MWC25, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed AI integration, IBM’s ecosystem strategy and how businesses can adopt AI-native solutions. (* Disclosure below.) IBM's Build Partner program fosters an environment where businesses can collaborate, learn and grow together. As technologies continue to reshape industries, initiatives like IBM’s Build Partner program are serving as the bedrock of meaningful innovations.

A compelling illustration is the recent collaboration between two startups, Bakstage.AI and Ovum Health. After meeting at an IBM Build Partner advisory board networking event, the two companies united in a shared goal of enhancing their user experiences with AI. They began exploring a partnership that resulted in a collaboration with IBM to integrate watsonx.ai into a solution that combines Bakstage's AI-enhanced video chat platform with Ovum's clinical acumen—ultimately offering insights into patients' health,... Founded by Shashank Singh, Bakstage.AI has been pivotal in redefining sales and customer service through its AI-empowered, human-focused video communication platform. Their AI agents work seamlessly with humans and other AI agents, offering 1:1 live video communication. By incorporating IBM's watsonx.ai, Bakstage's video concierge has evolved, introducing advanced features including AI notetaking and sentiment analysis.

These developments have not only enriched customer interactions but also provided valuable insights for quality assessments aligned with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) guidelines. In parallel, Ovum Health, a fertility-focused telehealth provider, has been dedicated to delivering accessible, personalized pre-pregnancy, pre- and postnatal care to expectant mothers. Ovum Health's clinicians have benefited from Bakstage's remote capabilities, enabling more engaging, face-to-face interactions with patients, designed to boost patient satisfaction and the depth of consultations. VP, Build Ecosystem & Ai Partnerships EMEA It’s no overstatement to say that AI is transforming the world. The latest generative AI (gen AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions can perform tasks with astonishing speed and accuracy compared with human workers.

As a result, enterprises can accelerate coding from days to minutes, personalize the customer experience with unprecedented precision and liberate employees from repetitive administration tasks. Since 2022, the return on investment (ROI) from AI solutions has leapt from 13% to 31%, and forthcoming research from the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) will show that embedding gen AI into... To thrive in this new industrial revolution, business leaders are looking to AI and ML solutions to maintain and sharpen their competitive edge—and more than half of CEOs now see these technologies as more... For independent software vendors (ISVs) and managed service providers (MSPs), the opportunity is clear. Developing new AI-infused solutions or embedding AI into existing solutions can potentially open a wide range of new revenue streams. Using the technology stack and global reach of IBM can help our Build partners achieve AI success.

Get curated insights on the most important—and intriguing—AI news. Subscribe to our weekly Think newsletter. See the IBM Privacy Statement. As technological innovation frequently outpaces practical application, IBM Corp. has taken a deliberate approach to advancing cloud and enterprise AI solutions, prioritizing functionality, security and sustainable growth. The company’s AI-first strategy reflects its commitment to embedding AI across every facet of the business — not as a standalone product, but as a core driver of enterprise value.

“The companies that will outperform in the next decade will truly be AI first,” according to Arvind Krishna, chairman and chief executive officer at IBM. “This is an enormous catalyst that would drive [value] — and we can see that happening now.” IBM’s vision for the future stretches beyond current AI capabilities to pioneering fields, such as generative and quantum computing, reinforcing its dedication to enterprise AI solutions that can drive significant innovation across sectors. Generative AI allows IBM to create systems capable of producing new forms of data — such as text and images — that mimic human creativity. This leap forward could enable advancements across sectors as IBM establishes itself in this space. Quantum computing, a longer-term investment, promises to transform industries such as finance, healthcare and cybersecurity, aligning with IBM’s goal to build a versatile, adaptable computing landscape.

“The future of our company is going to be about excelling at each of these forms of computing but also bringing them together,” Khrisna said. “This goes beyond just the model; there’s actually a lot more sophistication of what’s going to be possible.” During theCUBE on the Ground – IBM Analyst Forum event, IBM executives expanded on these themes, engaging with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, on IBM’s strategic advancements in generative AI, data management and enterprise... They highlighted the role of AI in simplifying data complexity, the importance of partnerships for digital transformation and IBM’s commitment to positioning AI as a cornerstone for future business success. Generative AI (gen AI) is inspiring great excitement but leaving some organizations overwhelmed and unsure how to profit from this new technology. Many artificial intelligence (AI) projects fail to progress from sandbox to production, resulting in financial losses and limiting the company’s competitive advantage.

IBM and its partner ecosystem are here to help. By combining IBM AI solutions with IBM Business Partners’ expertise in customization, system integration, managed services and more, we can collectively help enterprises capitalize on AI’s potential. Discover expertly curated insights and news on AI, cloud and more in the weekly Think Newsletter. Research from the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) suggests that gen AI investment is surging, with spending increasing more than 10 times in 12 months. The typical organization expects to grow its gen AI model portfolio by approximately 50% within 3 years. However, these investments might not always be targeted effectively: one in three companies pauses their AI use case after the pilot phase.

When AI initiatives falter, organizations waste time and resources, missing out on return on investment. This can sour internal attitudes toward AI and significantly reduce digital transformation efforts. ARMONK, N.Y., May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today at the company's annual THINK event, IBM (NYSE: IBM) is unveiling new hybrid technologies that break down the longstanding barriers to scaling enterprise AI – enabling... IBM estimates that over one billion apps will emerge by 2028, putting pressure on businesses to scale across increasingly fragmented environments. This requires seamless integration, orchestration and data readiness. A new IBM CEO study shows that business leaders expect the growth rate of AI investments to more than double over the next two years, with most actively adopting AI agents and preparing to...

Yet their pace of investments has led to disconnected technology – and only 25% of AI initiatives have achieved the ROI they expected. IBM is combining hybrid technologies, agent capabilities and deep industry expertise from IBM Consulting to help businesses operationalize AI. "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." Enjoy transformative outcomes with AI that integrates and unifies your data across applications​

IBM helps you build a competitive edge by enabling you to use AI to automate workflows and tasks in critical areas such as customer service, supply chain management, HR tasks, IT and more.​ Partnering with leading innovators like AWS, Microsoft and SAP, we can deliver AI solutions tailored to your needs. No matter where you are on your AI journey, IBM is here to help you move forward. Discover our portfolio of AI products that accelerate generative AI into core workflows, driving automation and productivity. Find data and AI tools to build, scale and govern your custom solutions across the AI lifecycle. Create personalized AI assistants and AI agents to automate repetitive tasks, simplify complex processes and accelerate your work.

IBM is fully committed to leading this new era. In fact, our commitment to the acceleration of SaaS is definitively seen through our acquisitions, our software offerings, and our partner resources. Our strategic acquisitions of Apptio and HashiCorp, combined with the strength of Red Hat and watsonx, have created a powerful ecosystem of hybrid cloud and AI-driven SaaS solutions. These platforms enable enterprises to integrate, automate, and secure complex operations across diverse environments — key for building future-proof, cloud-native applications. There’s a transformation happening in enterprise technology, and it’s being fueled by the accelerated evolution of SaaS and AI. Despite speculation about AI agents overtaking SaaS, the reality is clear – SaaS is not only here to stay, but it's becoming even more critical as AI capabilities expand and hybrid cloud infrastructures mature.

According to Gartner, global end-user SaaS spending is expected to reach $247 billion in 2024 and nearly $300 billion by 2025. This surge reflects the growing need for agile, cost-efficient, and scalable solutions that power faster innovation — capabilities that SaaS delivers, especially when supercharged by AI. IBM is fully committed to leading this new era. In fact, our commitment to the acceleration of SaaS is definitively seen through our acquisitions, our software offerings, and our partner resources. Our strategic acquisitions of Apptio and HashiCorp, combined with the strength of Red Hat and watsonx, have created a powerful ecosystem of hybrid cloud and AI-driven SaaS solutions. These platforms enable enterprises to integrate, automate, and secure complex operations across diverse environments — key for building future-proof, cloud-native applications.

The integration of HashiCorp’s infrastructure automation and security capabilities into our portfolio creates lift for partners reselling the products while strengthening our hybrid cloud offerings. Modern SaaS applications rely on hybrid cloud infrastructure spanning multiple environments, where HashiCorp’s technologies excel. For our ecosystem, this means bigger opportunities to sell comprehensive solutions that clients can implement without disruption. There’s no question AI was the dominant topic of 2024. Almost every enterprise – large and small – was inspired by the promise of what Generative AI could do to modernize processes, create new revenue streams and transform business models. The enormous potential of this game-changing technology stoked imagination and fueled countless AI projects.

There’s no question AI was the dominant topic of 2024. Almost every enterprise – large and small – was inspired by the promise of what Generative AI could do to modernize processes, create new revenue streams and transform business models. The enormous potential of this game-changing technology stoked imagination and fueled countless AI projects. At the center of these AI projects is the IBM Ecosystem. Our partners set the industry standard for bringing the promise of AI to life, working with us to provide the expertise and skills needed to help businesses responsibly scale their AI deployments using IBM’s... So, with 2024 drawing to a close, I thought it’d be a perfect moment to share some thoughts on the year and the exciting road ahead.

First, I want to thank all IBM partners for their amazing work throughout the year. There are so many examples of our diverse set of partners in action this year, from LTI Mindtree and Wipro establishing watsonx Centers of Excellence to help scale AI-powered client innovations, to partners like... Collaborations with AMD, Intel and NVIDIA helped accelerate Gen AI deployments on IBM Cloud, and global distributors such as Arrow, Ingram Micro and TD Synnex established AI learning hubs to help equip resell partners... We also deepened our partnerships with AWS and Microsoft to amplify access to AI-powered solutions for clients through expanded availability of their marketplaces. The efforts of these partners and so many others has had an enormous impact in helping our mutual clients around the globe accelerate their AI journeys.

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