Elior Group and IBM France Announce a Collaboration to Make Elior Group a Company Focused on Data, Artificial Intelligence and Agentic AI

PARIS and NEW YORK, July 10, 2025 – Elior Group, and IBM announce their association to create an “agentic AI & Data Factory” to serve Elior Group’s innovation, digital transformation, and improved operational performance.

This collaboration represents a major step forward in the innovation and digitization of the Elior Group, a world leader in contract catering and services for businesses and local authorities.

The aim of this collaboration is to use IBM’s full services portfolio, and leverage IBM’s expertise in data and AI to support Elior Group’s improvement of its operational processes and offering of innovative solutions to Elior’s customers. IBM will contribute its expertise in setting up AI agents, capable of autonomously processing and analyzing large quantities of data to optimize the performance of Elior Group’s various business units.

A key aspect of this collaboration is the creation of an “Agentic AI & Data Factory”, a centralized platform to manage and orchestrate AI agents deployed across Elior Group’s countries and business units. This platform will be designed to be flexible and scalable, in order to adapt to the specific needs of each entity and integrate with existing systems.

“By collaborating with IBM, we are reaching a new milestone in our digital transformation,” said Boris Derichebourg, President of Elior and Derichebourg Multiservices. “This effort will enable us to take full advantage of the power of data and artificial intelligence to improve our operational performance and offer our customers ever more innovative and personalized services. It is a strategic step forward that confirms our ambition to remain at the forefront of innovation.”

Alongside Elior Group’s teams, IBM will actively contribute to the implementation of Elior’s data governance and change management strategy, to help ensure the successful adoption of the new technologies by Elior’s internal teams. Work sessions will be organized to make employees aware of the challenges and opportunities associated with AI and data, and to help them take advantage of the new solutions being implemented.

This collaboration with IBM is part of Elior Group’s drive to remain at the forefront of innovation and strengthen its leadership position in the foodservice and related services market. By drawing on IBM’s cutting-edge technologies and expertise, Elior Group plans to offer its customers even more effective services tailored to their needs.

“Agentic AI can help accelerate business execution by intelligently orchestrating actions and making faster, more informed decisions,” said Alex Bauer, General Manager IBM Consulting France. “IBM is proud to support Elior in meeting its transformation goals through the expertise of our people and our solutions.”

Through this collaboration, Elior Group and IBM France are each demonstrating their commitment to innovation and digital transformation, in the service of performance and customer satisfaction.

About Elior Group 

Founded in 1991, Elior Group is a world leader in contract catering and multiservices, and a benchmark player in the business & industry, local authority, education and health & welfare markets. With strong positions in eleven countries, the Group generated €6 billion in revenue in fiscal 2023-2024. Our 133,000 employees cater for 3.2 million people every day at 20,200 restaurants and points of sale on three continents, and provide a range of services designed to take care of buildings and their occupants while protecting the environment. The Group’s business model is built on both innovation and social responsibility. Elior Group has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2004, reaching advanced level in 2015.

To find out more, visitwww.eliorgroup.com / Follow Elior Group on X: @Elior_Group

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalise on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Posted by / July 16, 2025 / Posted in News

Nedgia Transforms its Customer Service with a Pioneering Virtual AI Agent Solution Together with IBM Consulting

New York and Madrid, July 14, 2025. Nedgia, the gas distributor of the Naturgy Group, has transformed its customer service model through a leading digital evolution project that uses generative artificial intelligence agents. IBM (NYSE: IBM) Consulting designed and implemented the project, creating an innovative contact center supported by virtual agents.

This solution, a cutting-edge application of generative AI, strengthens customer service by incorporating intelligent virtual agents into the company’s standard telephone and digital customer service channels. This allows the company to replicate and scale automation use cases, improving service by allowing AI agents to successfully resolve most interactions.

The automation process will include, among other things, services like appointment management for periodic inspections, access to meter reading information, and, in the future, the ability to modify supply point data. All of these advancements will allow customers to manage their appointments automatically, enjoy a seamless experience, and significantly reduce wait times and incident resolution.

The AI agent system is capable of understanding and managing complex requests, routing conversations to specialized virtual agents based on the topic to ensure more natural and efficient interactions. These virtual agents will reinforce the current human support system that Nedgia continues to provide.

“This new service model marks a turning point in the way that we engage with our clients. With this project, we are offering faster, more accurate, and personalized responses, which results in an improved customer experience, explains Raúl Suárez, CEO of Nedgia. “We are also reaffirming our commitment to innovation as a way to continue adding value to the energy sector, playing a leading role in the transition through our work as a driver of green gases.”

“Nedgia’s case exemplifies the value that IBM Consulting brings to digital transformation processes, combining industry experience, technological knowledge, and a customer-centric methodology,” explains Ana Gobernado, Managing Partner of IBM Consulting for Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Israel. “Our mission is to support organizations in their transformation, adapting to their needs and leveraging their infrastructure. Nedgia’s success underscores the enormous potential that AI agents, when properly designed and implemented, have in customer service.”

This project is part of a collaboration between Naturgy and IBM Consulting, two organizations that share the same vision of the potential of generative AI to revolutionize relationships with their customers.

Optimizing the customer experience

At the core of this transformation, Nedgia is integrating leading platforms that combine large language models (LLM) with cloud-based contact center solutions. The company has implemented this integration gradually, ensuring compatibility with Nedgia’s existing systems and enabling a model that leverages advanced technology without requiring major structural changes or complex investments.

Unlike traditional AI systems that require a constant level of supervision, these agents operate independently: they decide which tools to use, when to use them, and how. They continuously learn and adapt as they work, improving their performance to achieve specific goals and optimize interactions.

Virtual agents also enable a significant qualitative leap by maintaining non-deterministic conversations, understanding context, and managing multiple topics in real time. They provide a more personalized customer experience by detecting emotions and adjusting their responses, tone, and language accordingly.

This combined quantitative and qualitative advancement can help improve service quality, increase customer service capacity, and boost overall customer satisfaction. With this transformation, Nedgia is positioning itself at the forefront of innovation in customer service, reinforcing its commitment to operational excellence and user satisfaction.

About Nedgia

Nedgia, a gas distributor within the Naturgy group, is the leading gas distribution company in Spain, operating in 10 autonomous communities and 1,222 municipalities. It has more than 5.5 million supply points, representing 70% of the country’s gas consumers. Its main asset is the approximately 60,000 kilometers of networks that allow for the safe and efficient delivery of gas energy supplies, including green gas. Proximity and customer service are part of its reason for being, highlighting its high values of quality perceived by its customers.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Posted by / July 10, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Power11 Raises the Bar for Enterprise IT

ARMONK, N.Y. and MUNICHJuly 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) revealed IBM Power11, the next generation of IBM® Power® servers. Redesigned with innovations across its processor, hardware architecture, and virtualization software stack, Power11 is designed to deliver the availability, resiliency, performance, and scalability enterprises demand, for seamless hybrid deployment on-premises or in IBM Cloud.

Organizations across industries have long run their most mission-critical, data-intensive workloads on IBM Power, most notably those within the banking, healthcare, retail, and government spaces. Now, enterprises face an onslaught of new technologies and solutions as they transition into the age of AI. IDC found that one billion new logical applications are expected by 2028, and the proliferation of these systems poses new complexities for companies.1 IBM built Power11 to deliver simplified, always-on operations with hybrid cloud flexibility for enterprises to maintain competitiveness in the AI era.

Power11 is designed to be the most resilient server in the history of the IBM Power platform, with 99.9999% of uptime.2 Together with zero planned downtime for system maintenance3 and less than one-minute guaranteed ransomware threat detection with IBM Power Cyber Vault, 4 Power11 sets a new bar for business continuity, addressing both planned and cyber-incident-related downtime.

For the first time ever, the Power11 general availability will simultaneously include high-end, mid-range, and entry servers as well as IBM Power Virtual Server in IBM Cloud. IBM Power Virtual Server offers a fast path to the cloud for Power workloads, and is certified as a hyperscaler platform for RISE with SAP.  Power11 will also be the first IBM Power server to support the IBM Spyre Accelerator, IBM’s system-on-a-chip available Q4 2025 that is purpose-built for today’s AI-intensive inference workloads. Available across IBM’s enterprise systems portfolio, including Power11, IBM z17, and LinuxONE 5, Spyre will deliver advanced AI acceleration to help organizations scale AI across hybrid cloud environments.

With support for autonomous operations, Power11 delivers intelligent performance gains that reduce complexity and improve workload efficiency. Power11 offers up to 55% better core performance compared to Power95 and has up to 45% more capacity with higher core counts in entry and mid-range systems compared to Power10. This upgraded performance means that with Power11, enterprises are positioned to achieve enhanced flexibility and security, to transform their enterprise processes through automation.

With Power11, customers can expect:

  • Zero planned downtime for system maintenance. Power11 provides enterprises with a solution that can avoid costly planned downtime and help reduce operational risk. Through advanced technologies like autonomous patching and automated workload movement, planned system maintenance events can occur without ever taking critical applications offline. This feature can free IT professionals from spending time planning, testing, and executing upgrades to their systems, to focusing on higher-value work and innovation. Furthermore, IBM Power will interoperate with IBM Concert using generative AI to help identify operational risks, provide actionable insights, and automate remediation, starting with security patch management. IBM Technology Lifecycle Services (TLS), IBM’s global infrastructure support provider, complements this feature with premium, AI-powered services designed to help proactively monitor system health, reduce downtime, and optimize system reliability and performance.
  • Less than one minute ransomware threat detection with IBM Power Cyber Vault. The Power Cyber Vault solution is an integrated cyber resiliency solution following NIST cybersecurity framework to help identify, protect, detect, and automatically respond to cyber threats. Cyber Vault provides protection against cyberattacks such as data corruption and encryption with proactive immutable snapshots that are automatically captured, stored, and tested on a custom-defined schedule. Power11 also uses NIST-approved built-in quantum-safe cryptography designed to help protect systems from harvest-now, decrypt-later attacks as well as firmware integrity attacks.
  • Transformed business processes with AI integration. Power11 delivers AI-ready infrastructure with built-in, on-chip acceleration for inferencing and will be able to scale to support mission-critical AI workloads through the IBM Spyre Accelerator. Combined with Red Hat OpenShift AI and a broad ecosystem of open-source software and toolkits, Power11 is built to provide the flexibility and performance needed to operationalize AI across hybrid environments. To further modernize application development, IBM watsonx Code Assistant for i will help developers extend critical RPG applications for greater ease and productivity. IBM will also make watsonx.data, its hybrid, open data lakehouse, available on Power11 by the end of 2025.
  • Efficient IT that saves time and money. Beyond the autonomous processes that support zero planned downtime and IBM Power Cyber Vault, Power11 delivers meaningful efficiency gains across the IT stack. Separately, in terms of energy efficiency, Power11 offers twice the performance per watt versus comparable x86 servers7 and up to 28 percent better server efficiency with the new Energy Efficient Mode compared to Maximum Performance Mode on Power11. 8

“IBM Power11 changes the game for enterprise computing,” said Tom McPherson, GM, Power Systems at IBM. “With Power11, clients can accelerate into the AI era with innovations tailored to their most pressing business needs. We are taking advantage of the full IBM stack to deliver hybrid cloud, AI, and automation capabilities while building on our decades-long reputation as a trustworthy hybrid infrastructure for essential workloads.”

“With just 20 minutes and the help of watsonx Code Assistant for i on Power, I was able to investigate a report, trace the field logic, understand the calculation, and document the issue,” said Jasmine Kaczmarek, VP of Technology at MR Williams. “What had taken a senior developer six hours the day before, I was able to accomplish 18 times faster. That’s truly remarkable when you think about it. This kind of productivity gain is exactly what Power11 is designed for. By empowering developers to modernize core business applications faster and more confidently, AI-augmented tools built into the platform can help increase long-lasting business value.”

“We’re committed to helping the people of Florida receive the quality health care they can afford,” said William Allarey, Sr. IT Manager at GuideWell. “With the new IBM Power11 automation capabilities, we are very interested in faster and more frequent maintenance updates with no planned downtime to keep the servers secure, stable, and current, so our team can focus on delivering benefits and services for better health. In addition, the native AI capabilities and significant system performance gains of the Power11 will allow our company to leverage AI for a clearer and faster claims experience.”

“Temenos’ collaboration with IBM has already proven the value of running mission-critical workloads on IBM Power,” said William Moroney, Chief Revenue Officer at Temenos. “With the launch of Power11, that potential grows even further by bringing an AI-ready infrastructure, zero-downtime resilience, and even greater performance to the financial services industry. We look forward to our continued partnership to help clients modernize their core banking on this built for hybrid cloud platform.”

IBM Power11 will be generally available July 25, 2025. The IBM Spyre™ Accelerator is expected to be available in Q4 2025.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

Posted by / July 8, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Introduces Industry-First Software to Unify Agentic Governance and Security

ARMONK, N.Y.June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Today, as enterprises scale AI agents across their organizations, IBM (NYSE: IBM) is announcing the industry’s first software to bring AI security and AI governance teams together and provide a unified view of enterprises’ risk posture.

The new capabilities enhance and integrate watsonx.governance and Guardium AI Security to help clients keep their AI systems, including agents, secured and responsible at scale. Watsonx.governance is IBM’s end-to-end AI governance tool and Guardium AI Security is IBM’s tool for securing AI models, data, and usage.

“AI agents are set to revolutionize enterprise productivity, but the very benefits of AI agents can also present a challenge,” said Ritika Gunnar, General Manager, Data and AI, IBM. “When these autonomous systems aren’t properly governed or secured, they can carry steep consequences.”

Today’s new offerings include:

Integrating and Automating Agentic AI Security 

IBM is enhancing the integration of IBM Guardium AI Security and watsonx.governance, providing enterprises with the first unified solution to manage security and governance risks associated with AI use cases. The integration supports users’ processes to validate compliance standards against 12 different frameworks, including the EU AI Act and ISO 42001.

IBM is also introducing new capabilities to Guardium AI Security through a collaboration with AllTrue.ai, including the ability to detect new AI use cases in cloud environments, code repositories, and embedded systems –providing broad visibility and protection in an increasingly decentralized AI ecosystem. Once identified, IBM Guardium AI Security can automatically trigger appropriate governance workflows from watsonx.governance.

Recent updates to IBM Guardium AI Security also include automated red teaming to help enterprises detect and fix vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across AI use cases. And to help mitigate risks such as code injection, sensitive data exposure, and data leakage, the tool enables users to define custom security policies that analyze both input and output prompts. These features are available now in IBM Guardium AI Security, and their integration with watsonx.governance will roll out throughout the remainder of the year.

“The future of AI depends on how well we secure it today. Embedding security from the start is essential to protecting data, supporting compliance obligations, and building lasting trust,” said Suja Viswesan, Vice President, Security and Runtime Products, IBM.

“One of the biggest challenges for security teams is translating incidents and compliance violations into quantifiable business risk. The rapid adoption of AI and agentic AI amplifies this issue,” said Jennifer Glenn, Research Director for the IDC Security and Trust Group. “Unifying AI governance with AI security gives organizations the necessary context to find and prioritize risks, as well as the information to clearly communicate the consequences of not addressing them.”

Enhanced Agentic AI Evaluation and Lifecycle Governance

IBM watsonx.governance can now monitor and manage AI agents across their entire lifecycle, from development to deployment. Evaluation nodes can be built directly into agents, allowing users to carefully monitor metrics like answer relevance, context relevance, and faithfulness – and help identify the root cause of poor performance. Planned future capabilities also include agent onboarding risk assessment, agent audit trails, and an agentic tool catalogue, which are expected to be available June 27.

Off-the-Shelf Compliance Capabilities 

IBM watsonx.governance Compliance Accelerators provide select pre-loaded regulations, standards, and frameworks from around the globe, enabling users to identify relevant obligations and map them onto their own AI use cases. Content covers key regulations like the EU AI Act, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s SR 11-7, and New York City Local Law 144, along with global standards like ISO/IEC 42001 and frameworks like the NIST AI RMF. Watsonx.governance Compliance Accelerators is available now as an add-on.

Expertise to Scale AI Responsibly

To help clients scale AI responsibly, IBM Consulting Cybersecurity Services is introducing a new set of services that brings together data security platforms, like IBM Guardium AI Security, with deep AI technology and domain consulting. The new services will support organizations through their AI transformation journey: from discovering AI deployments and potential vulnerabilities, to implementing secure-by-design practices across AI layers, to governance guidance for a constantly evolving regulatory landscape. The new services build on IBM Consulting’s experience helping hundreds of clients worldwide on AI strategy and governance, including Nationwide Building Society and e&.

To provide AWS clients with increased value and convenience, watsonx.governance is now also available on AWS data center in India with enhanced model monitoring capabilities.

Today’s new capabilities and integrations give businesses the comprehensive governance and security they need to thrive in the agentic AI era. The innovations also dovetail with IBM’s broader suite of IBM watsonx AI solutions, built to help companies accelerate the impact of generative AI, responsibly and securely.

Posted by / June 18, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Sets the Course to Build World’s First Large-Scale, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer at New IBM Quantum Data Center

  • IBM Quantum roadmap, processors, and infrastructure outline clear path to IBM Quantum Starling, expected to be first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer 
  • Breakthrough research defines key elements for an efficient fault-tolerant architecture — charting the first viable path toward a system projected to run 20,000 times more operations than today’s quantum computers
  • Representing the computational state of IBM Starling would require the memory of more than a quindecillion (1048) of the world’s most powerful supercomputers

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., June 10, 2025/PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled its path to build the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, setting the stage for practical and scalable quantum computing.

Delivered by 2029, IBM Quantum Starling will be built in a new IBM Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, New York and is expected to perform 20,000 times more operations than today’s quantum computers. To represent the computational state of an IBM Starling would require the memory of more than a quindecillion (1048) of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. With Starling, users will be able to fully explore the complexity of its quantum states, which are beyond the limited properties able to be accessed by current quantum computers.

IBM, which already operates a large, global fleet of quantum computers, is releasing a new Quantum Roadmap that outlines its plans to build out a practical, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

“IBM is charting the next frontier in quantum computing,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM. “Our expertise across mathematics, physics, and engineering is paving the way for a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer — one that will solve real-world challenges and unlock immense possibilities for business.”

A large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer with hundreds or thousands of logical qubits could run hundreds of millions to billions of operations, which could accelerate time and cost efficiencies in fields such as drug development, materials discovery, chemistry, and optimization.

Starling will be able to access the computational power required for these problems by running 100 million quantum operations using 200 logical qubits. It will be the foundation for IBM Quantum Blue Jay, which will be capable of executing 1 billion quantum operations over 2,000 logical qubits.

A logical qubit is a unit of an error-corrected quantum computer tasked with storing one qubit’s worth of quantum information. It is made from multiple physical qubits working together to store this information and monitor each other for errors.

Like classical computers, quantum computers need to be error corrected to run large workloads without faults. To do so, clusters of physical qubits are used to create a smaller number of logical qubits with lower error rates than the underlying physical qubits. Logical qubit error rates are suppressed exponentially with the size of the cluster, enabling them to run greater numbers of operations.

Creating increasing numbers of logical qubits capable of executing quantum circuits, with as few physical qubits as possible, is critical to quantum computing at scale. Until today, a clear path to building such a fault-tolerant system without unrealistic engineering overhead has not been published.

The Path to Large-Scale Fault Tolerance

The success of executing an efficient fault-tolerant architecture is dependent on the choice of its error-correcting code, and how the system is designed and built to enable this code to scale.

Alternative and previous gold-standard, error-correcting codes present fundamental engineering challenges. To scale, they would require an unfeasible number of physical qubits to create enough logical qubits to perform complex operations – necessitating impractical amounts of infrastructure and control electronics. This renders them unlikely to be able to be implemented beyond small-scale experiments and devices.

A practical, large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer requires an architecture that is:

  • Fault-tolerant to suppress enough errors for useful algorithms to succeed.
  • Able to prepare and measure logical qubits through computation.
  • Capable of applying universal instructions to these logical qubits.
  • Able to decode measurements from logical qubits in real-time and can alter subsequent instructions.
  • Modular to scale to hundreds or thousands of logical qubits to run more complex algorithms.
  • Efficient enough to execute meaningful algorithms with realistic physical resources, such as energy and infrastructure.

Today, IBM is introducing two new technical papers that detail how it will solve the above criteria to build a large-scale, fault-tolerant architecture.

The first paper unveils how such a system will process instructions and run operations effectively with qLDPC codes. This work builds on a groundbreaking approach to error correction featured on the cover of Nature that introduced quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC) codes. This code drastically reduces the number of physical qubits needed for error correction and cuts required overhead by approximately 90 percent, compared to other leading codes. Additionally, it lays out the resources required to reliably run large-scale quantum programs to prove the efficiency of such an architecture over others.

The second paper describes how to efficiently decode the information from the physical qubits and charts a path to identify and correct errors in real-time with conventional computing resources.

From Roadmap to Reality

The new IBM Quantum Roadmap outlines the key technology milestones that will demonstrate and execute the criteria for fault tolerance. Each new processor in the roadmap addresses specific challenges to build quantum computers that are modular, scalable, and error-corrected:

  • IBM Quantum Loon, expected in 2025, is designed to test architecture components for the qLDPC code, including “C-couplers” that connect qubits over longer distances within the same chip.
  • IBM Quantum Kookaburra, expected in 2026, will be IBM’s first modular processor designed to store and process encoded information. It will combine quantum memory with logic operations — the basic building block for scaling fault-tolerant systems beyond a single chip.
  • IBM Quantum Cockatoo, expected in 2027, will entangle two Kookaburra modules using “L-couplers.” This architecture will link quantum chips together like nodes in a larger system, avoiding the need to build impractically large chips.

Together, these advancements are being designed to culminate in Starling in 2029.

Posted by / June 10, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Unveils watsonx AI Labs: The Ultimate Accelerator for AI Builders, Startups and Enterprises in New York City

NEW YORKJune 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced watsonx AI Labs, a new, developer-first innovation hub in New York City, designed to supercharge AI builders and accelerate AI adoption at scale. watsonx AI Labs connects IBM’s enterprise resources and expertise with the next generation of AI developers in order to build breakthrough AI applications for business.

Located in the heart of Manhattan at IBM’s new offices at One Madison, watsonx AI Labs extends IBM’s global network of engineering labs, bringing together IBM researchers and engineers in a collaborative hub dedicated to co-creating and advancing meaningful, agentic AI solutions. The lab will work side-by-side with startups, scale-ups, and the world’s largest enterprises to help clients unlock real-world value from their AI.

The lab benefits from – and helps fuel – New York City’s status as a global AI hub. New York City has more than 2,000 AI startups, and its AI workforce grew by nearly 25% from 2022 to 2023, according to Tech:NYC. Since 2019, more than 1,000 AI-related companies in New York City have raised $27 billion in funding.

Also today, continuing its commitment to the local startup ecosystem, IBM announced it will acquire expertise and license technology from Seek AI, the New York City-based startup building AI agents to harness enterprise data. Seek AI helps businesses leverage agentic AI to mine value from enterprise data, and their expertise will serve as a foundational part of watsonx AI Labs.

“This isn’t your typical corporate lab. watsonx AI Labs is where the best AI developers gain access to world-class engineers and resources and build new businesses and applications that will reshape AI for the enterprise,” said Ritika Gunnar, General Manager, Data & AI, IBM. “By anchoring this mission in New York City, we are investing in a diverse, world‑class talent pool and a vibrant community whose innovations have long shaped the tech landscape.”

“IBM’s launch of watsonx AI Labs signals a transformative investment in New York’s innovation ecosystem. By bringing together world-class engineering talent, emerging startups, and deep enterprise expertise right here in the heart of the city, this initiative strengthens New York’s position as a global hub for responsible and cutting-edge AI development,” said Julie Samuels, President and CEO of Tech:NYC. “It’s a win for our tech sector, communities, workforce, and economy. We’re thrilled to see IBM betting big on the extraordinary talent and entrepreneurial spirit that make this city so unique.”

The lab seeks to tap into New York City’s rich technology landscape by attracting local talent, pursuing collaborations with local universities and research institutions, and supporting local entrepreneurs. Consistent with IBM’s long-standing investment in New York State, over the next five years, local startups that successfully launch AI enterprise solutions at the lab will have access to technical experts, mentorship and amplification, as well as potential investment from IBM Ventures and its global $500M Enterprise AI Venture Fund.

“Building a foundational part of watsonx AI Labs allows us to pair our expertise building data agents with IBM’s engineering depth to solve clients’ toughest AI challenges,” said Sarah Nagy, CEO of Seek AI. “We’re excited to tackle these challenges here in New York City, where Seek AI was founded and the AI talent and innovation ecosystem is thriving.”

watsonx AI Labs will focus on co-creation of domain‑specific AI solutions to solve enterprises’ most complex challenges – from customer service and supply‑chain optimization to cybersecurity, responsible AI governance, and open-source AI.

To learn more about participating in the watsonx AI Labs, visit www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-ai-labs.

Posted by / June 2, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM and Oracle Expand Partnership to Advance Agentic AI and Hybrid Cloud

ARMONK, N.Y., May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – IBM is working with Oracle to bring the power of watsonx, IBM’s flagship portfolio of AI products, to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Leveraging OCI’s native AI services, the latest milestone in IBM’s technology partnership with Oracle is designed to fuel a new era of multi-agentic, AI-driven productivity and efficiency across the enterprise.

Organizations today are deploying AI throughout their operations, looking to take advantage of the extraordinary advancements in generative AI models, tools, and agents. AI agents that can provide a single, easy-to-use interface to complete tasks are emerging as key tools to help simplify the deployment and use of AI across enterprise operations and functions.

“AI delivers the most impactful value when it works seamlessly across an entire business,” said Greg Pavlik, executive vice president, AI and Data Management Services, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “IBM and Oracle have been collaborating to drive customer success for decades, and our expanded partnership will provide customers new ways to help transform their businesses with AI.”

Watsonx Orchestrate to support multi-agent workflows

To give customers a consistent way to build and manage agents across multi-agent, multi-system business processes, spanning both Oracle and non-Oracle applications and data sources, IBM is making its watsonx Orchestrate AI agent offerings available on OCI in July. This multi-agent approach using wastonx Orchestrate is designed to work with the expansive AI agent offerings embedded within the Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, as well as OCI Generative AI Agents, and OCI’s other AI services. It extends the ecosystem around Oracle Fusion Applications to enable further functionality across third-party and custom applications and data sources. The first use cases being addressed are in human resources. The watsonx Orchestrate agents will perform AI inferencing on OCI, which many customers use to host their data, AI, and other applications.

IBM agents run in watsonx Orchestrate on Red Hat OpenShift on OCI, including in public, sovereign, government, and Oracle Alloy regions, to enable customers to address specific regulatory and privacy requirements. The agents can also be hosted on-premises or in multicloud environments for true hybrid cloud capabilities.

IBM Granite Models Hosted on OCI Data Science

To give customers more choice of fit-for-purpose, compact and efficient models, Oracle intends to make the IBM Granite family of AI models available through its OCI Data Science via AI Quick Actions. To streamline Granite access, the open-source Granite models are expected to be available within OCI as a cached LLM in the second half of this year.

“By integrating our AI with Oracle’s offerings, we’re enabling businesses to easily deploy and manage AI agents across their enterprise,” said Kareem Yusuf Ph.D, Senior Vice President, Ecosystem, Strategic Partners & Initiatives, IBM. “Our collaboration with Oracle illustrates how IBM and our partners offer clients a seamless and flexible path to scale AI.”

IBM Software to be Available on OCI

Oracle and IBM also plan to make IBM Envizi ESG Suite available on OCI, with an initial release in Saudi Arabia expected within the next 12 months. IBM Envizi is an enterprise sustainability solution that automates the capture, management and reporting of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data.

IBM’s watsonx.ai is now certified to run on OCI, enabling customers to leverage its industry-leading scalability and performance for bare metal and virtual machine instances with the benefits of the Red Hat OpenShift. Watsonx.ai is an enterprise-grade developer studio for building, running, and managing AI applications. Bringing  watsonx.ai to OCI can help organizations develop AI services on OCI, where they may already have applications and data, and deploy them into their application of choice with a collection of the APIs, tools, models, and runtimes.

Expanded Oracle Services from IBM Consulting

IBM is introducing expanded consulting services to help customers turn enterprise strategy into enterprise outcomes by enabling the use of AI agents across multiple platforms to transform end-to-end business processes. Leveraging deep technology and industry expertise, IBM Consulting will help customers orchestrate their agentic ecosystem by integrating, building, and scaling AI agents, including native Oracle AI agents, watsonx Orchestrate AI agents, and agents from across IBM’s partner ecosystem. IBM Consulting will also advise customers on how AI agents impact enterprise operating models and the workforce, including change management and enabling new ways of working. IBM consultants bring deep expertise in transforming core business processes like HR and supply chain as well as capabilities in its AI-powered delivery platform, IBM Consulting Advantage, to deliver value quickly.

IBM Consulting is offering new services that leverage AI-powered assets and methods to help Oracle customers migrate their workloads from on-premises virtual machines to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization on OCI bare metal cloud. This service helps customers migrate and modernize their infrastructure as they deploy with the proven virtualization of the OpenShift container platform running on OCI to provide flexible infrastructure for both legacy applications and AI and hybrid multicloud workloads.

IBM brings deep expertise in business transformation with OCI and Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, backed by a 38-year strategic partnership spanning technology and services, thousands of consultants who are certified across core Oracle technologies, and the acquisitions of Oracle consultancies Accelalpha and Applications Software Technology LLC.

Oracle and IBM also intend to pilot a joint go-to-market approach in select markets to help bring these new services and capabilities to customers.

“Agents are becoming an important strategic advantage for organizations to optimize operations and deliver better customer and employee experiences,” said Ritu Jyoti, IDC General Manager and Group Vice President. “Today’s most advanced agents are able to interact across different systems and processes, unleashing greater productivity and driving wider adoption. The Agentic AI approach IBM is taking with Oracle is a leading example of how the ability to orchestrate agentic workflows across systems can drive significant advantages, streamlining how work gets done and unlocking growth and innovation.”

For more information about this collaboration between IBM and Oracle, please visit:  https://www.ibm.com/consulting/oracle.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

Posted by / May 6, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Delivers Autonomous Security Operations with Cutting-Edge Agentic AI

ARMONK, N.Y.April 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM today introduced new agentic and automation capabilities to its managed detection and response service offerings to help enable autonomous security operations and predictive threat intelligence for clients.

IBM is launching Autonomous Threat Operations Machine (ATOM), an agentic AI system providing autonomous threat triage, investigation, and remediation with minimal human intervention. IBM is also introducing the new X-Force Predictive Threat Intelligence (PTI) agent for ATOM, which leverages industry vertical-specific AI foundation models to generate predictive threat insights on potential adversarial activity and minimize manual threat hunting efforts.

“Organizations continue to be challenged by increasingly stealthy and persistent cyber threats, which are slowing detection and response times,” said Mark Hughes, Global Managing Partner for Cybersecurity Services, IBM. “By delivering agentic AI capabilities, IBM is automating threat hunting to help improve detection and response processes so clients can unlock new value from security operations and free up already scarce security resources.”

Autonomous Threat Operations Machine (ATOM)
Powering IBM’s Threat Detection and Response (TDR) services, ATOM’s AI agentic framework and orchestration engine leverages multiple individual agents to augment an organization’s existing security analytics solution and help accelerate threat detection, analyze alerts with enrichment and contextualization, perform risk analysis, create and execute investigation plans, and perform remediation actions which enhance the security analyst experience. This orchestration allows security teams to focus on high priority threats, rather than spending valuable time on false positives or lower-priority risks.

As a global systems integrator and managed security services provider, IBM Consulting helps clients manage their security operations center (SOC) outcomes, including the delivery of AI-based orchestration for threat detection and response. Within the TDR platform, ATOM acts as a vendor-agnostic digital operator and provides AI capabilities that integrate with existing solutions from IBM and partners including Google Cloud, Microsoft, and more.

Predictive Threat Intelligence (PTI)
IBM X-Force Predictive Threat Intelligence (PTI) integrates AI with expert human analysis to help curate proactive threat intelligence. Built on proprietary AI foundational models and trained on cybersecurity data, PTI provides a tailored, contextualized threat intelligence feed and predicts potential threats based on adversary behavior.

To extract early indicators of behavior and compromise, PTI gathers data from more than 100 sources including X-Force Threat Intelligence, open-source RSS feeds, APIs and other automated sources, as well as user-supplied organizational context. PTI synthesizes that information into collective intelligence reports that include recommended threat hunt queries tailored to the organization’s specific needs. By focusing on indicators of behaviors, instead of just indicators of compromise, businesses can get ahead of threats.

RSAC 2025 Conference
This week, during the RSAC 2025 Conference in San Francisco, attendees can find IBM on-stage and at the booth on the Moscone Center’s North expo floor (#N-5871). For more details on IBM’s presence at the RSAC 2025 Conference, visit: https://www.ibm.com/events/rsa-conference.

Posted by / April 29, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM Acquires Hakkoda Inc., Expanding Data Expertise to Fuel Clients’ AI Transformations

ARMONK, N.Y.April 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has acquired Hakkoda Inc., a leading global data and AI consultancy. Hakkoda will expand IBM Consulting’s data transformation services portfolio, adding specialized data platform expertise to help clients get their data ready to fuel AI-powered business operations.

Hakkoda has leading capabilities in migrating, modernizing, and monetizing data estates and is an award-winning Snowflake partner. This acquisition amplifies IBM’s ability to meet the rapidly growing demand for data services and help clients build integrated enterprise data estates that are optimized for speed, cost and efficiency across multiple business use cases.

Hakkoda also brings a strong portfolio of generative AI powered assets that can speed up data modernization projects. Their industry solutions complement and build on their consultants’ deep expertise in industries like financial services, public sector, and healthcare and life sciences. Hakkoda will further expand IBM’s ability to bring both consulting expertise and AI to clients using its AI-powered delivery platform, IBM Consulting Advantage.

“IBM is at the leading edge of the consulting industry with how we’re supercharging our consultants with AI,” said Mohamad Ali, Senior Vice President and Head of IBM Consulting. “With Hakkoda’s data expertise, deep technology partnerships and asset-centric delivery model, IBM will be even better positioned to deliver value faster to clients as they transform with AI.”

“From the beginning, Hakkoda has committed to being ‘in the arena’, not observing the greatest transformation in history but shaping it,” said Erik Duffield, CEO and Co-founder of Hakkoda. “It is because of this that we are excited to join IBM at this critical moment when organizations are looking for a trusted partner to help them modernize their data for the AI era. IBM’s heritage of innovation, their commitment to discovery and deep partnerships with clients on their most technical challenges is a perfect pairing to take Hakkoda’s industry focused modern data consulting to the global marketplace.”

Estimated global spending for enterprise intelligence services initiatives stands at $169 billion and, with a five-year CAGR of about 13 percent, is expected to grow to more than $243 billion by 2028, according to IDC1. To extract value from their data, business leaders need a thoughtful data migration strategy and a modern, multi-use case data platform on the cloud.

As an Elite Snowflake partner, Hakkoda brings hundreds of SnowPro core and advanced certifications. They were named the 2024 Snowflake Healthcare & Life Sciences Services Partner of the Year and 2023 Snowflake Americas System Integrator Innovation Partner of the Year. Hakkoda is also an advanced-tier partner of AWS.

Hakkoda is headquartered in New York and brings hundreds of experts across the United StatesLatin AmericaIndiaEurope, and the United Kingdom to IBM Consulting. For more information on Hakkoda, visit https://hakkoda.io/.

The acquisition closed on April 2, 2025, and financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Posted by / April 8, 2025 / Posted in News

IBM and Basque Government announce plan to install Europe’s first IBM Quantum System Two at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center in Spain

– IBM Quantum System Two to be powered by a utility-scale 156-qubit IBM Quantum Heron processor.
– Installation of IBM Quantum System Two at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
– Members of the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center intend to use IBM’s most performant architecture to advance discovery and solutions in physics, information science, and materials science.

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.March 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Basque Government, and IBM today announced plans to install Europe’s first IBM Quantum System Two at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center on Ikerbasque Foundation’s main campus in San Sebastian, Spain (Gipuzkoa, Spain). The deployment builds on the organizations’ partnership, which began in 2023 as part of the BasQ initiative to further establish the Basque Country as a leading technology hub. Since the initial announcement, the parties have agreed to update the original plan to install an IBM Quantum System One, to now deploy IBM’s most advanced modular quantum computer, IBM Quantum System Two, which is expected to be complete by the end of 2025.

BasQ’s IBM Quantum System Two, to be managed by IBM, will be powered by an IBM Quantum Heron, the company’s most performant quantum processor to date, engineered to expand to multiple processors in the future. IBM Heron is capable of executing utility-scale algorithms beyond the capabilities of brute-force, classical simulation methods, including leveraging Qiskit software to accurately run certain classes of quantum circuits with up to 5,000 two-qubit gate operations.

This installation dedicated to Spain’s quantum innovators across academia, research labs, and industries represents IBM’s continued effort to expand Europe’s quantum ecosystem. Members of the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center will have access to these capabilities and resources to help build a quantum workforce, promote economic development, and develop new, useful algorithms to, in turn, help accomplish the Basque Country Government’s IKUR 2030 vision for quantum technologies. These efforts in algorithm development would be directly applied toward accomplishing IKUR 2030 goals, such as research into modeling new materials, research into how quantum computing can be used as part of the initiative’s broader sustainability efforts.

“With this scientific infrastructure, the Basque Country will be positioned as a global reference hub in quantum computing. This technology will help progress in the digital transformation and provide us with a state-of-the-art scientific infrastructure that will strengthen the scientific, technological and innovation ecosystem that must facilitate this transformation. The IBM Quantum System Two will be a key tool for the Basque Network for Science, Technology and Innovation to generate cutting-edge knowledge in the Basque Country, to implement highly specialized higher education programs at our universities, and to be prepared for the impact of quantum computing in the coming years by both the Basque public sector and the industry. The arrival of this computer will be a great opportunity for the Basque Country’s economic and social development and will enable us to cooperate with other regions, countries and actors in the development and impact of this technology,” said the President of the Basque Country Government, Mr. Imanol Pradales.

“The IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center’s dedicated IBM Quantum System Two will give Spain’s quantum community of researchers, developers, and industry experts unparalleled access to our most performant, most advanced quantum technologies—including the tools to develop algorithms that will help drive the entire quantum ecosystem toward achieving a quantum advantage within the next two years,” said Jay Gambetta, Vice President, IBM Quantum.

Posted by / March 13, 2025 / Posted in News