IBM and Open AI Expand Partnership to Bring AI Into More Enterprise Workflows
International Business Machines (IBM), the U.S.-based technology company, said Thursday that it had reached a strategic partnership with OpenAI to jointly develop the enterprise artificial-intelligence market. Founded in 1911, IBM is a longstanding global information-technology company that primarily provides hardware, software and services to enterprise customers. In June, IBM and OpenAI launched the OpenAI Daybreak partner program focused on cybersecurity. The new agreement expands on that relationship. IBM said the partnership will deliver customized AI solutions across industries including financial services, government, telecommunications and retail. Industry observers broadly view the agreement as a key step for OpenAI in reaching more large enterprise customers through IBM's global consulting business, as well as IBM's latest effort to accelerate its AI transformation while under business pressure. Under the agreement, IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI business team within its consulting division and plans to train tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI technology over the coming months. Mike Healy, a managing partner at IBM Consulting, said in an interview that the training will focus on OpenAI's Codex programming tool, application programming interfaces, cybersecurity and certifications for consulting solutions. IBM also plans to form a team of "frontier deployment specialists" certified through OpenAI's partner network. On the product side, IBM said it will integrate OpenAI's latest GPT-5.6 model, Codex and ChatGPT Work tools into IBM Consulting Advantage, its AI platform for consulting professionals. The goal is to help customers deploy AI applications in core business operations. As part of the agreement, IBM will become an elite partner of OpenAI, reflecting the companies' shared focus on securely delivering enterprise AI at scale. "The challenge is not getting access to AI, but how to integrate it securely and at scale into complex enterprise environments and workflows," Andy Baldwin, IBM Consulting's global senior vice president, said. He added that combining OpenAI's technology with IBM Consulting's existing AI assets, industry solutions and cybersecurity capabilities would help customers deploy AI applications securely and at scale. Industry sources have pointed out that as competition among AI model developers shifts from building increasingly powerful models toward winning enterprise customers and achieving commercial deployment at scale, OpenAI has been actively expanding its partnerships across industries. OpenAI previously reached agreements with Indian IT-services giant Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. IBM also reached a similar strategic partnership with Anthropic in October 2025, incorporating the Claude model into its product portfolio. Analysts say adding OpenAI will further strengthen IBM's "model-agnostic" strategy. Under that approach, IBM uses its watsonx platform to integrate capabilities from third-party AI providers alongside its in-house Granite large-language-model family, positioning itself as an integrator of enterprise AI deployments rather than solely as a model provider. The partnership comes as IBM's financial performance is under pressure. Its second-quarter earnings report, released in July, showed that the company lowered its full-year 2026 revenue outlook because revenue fell short of expectations. Still, IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said on the earnings call that AI remains a long-term growth engine for the company. He said the adoption of AI applications would be a "complement," rather than a replacement, for demand for IBM's mainframe business.
Founded in 1911, IBM is a longstanding global information-technology company that primarily provides hardware, software and services to enterprise customers. In June, IBM and OpenAI launched the OpenAI Daybreak partner program focused on cybersecurity. The new agreement expands on that relationship.
IBM said the partnership will deliver customized AI solutions across industries including financial services, government, telecommunications and retail. Industry observers broadly view the agreement as a key step for OpenAI in reaching more large enterprise customers through IBM's global consulting business, as well as IBM's latest effort to accelerate its AI transformation while under business pressure.
Under the agreement, IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI business team within its consulting division and plans to train tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI technology over the coming months.
Mike Healy, a managing partner at IBM Consulting, said in an interview that the training will focus on OpenAI's Codex programming tool, application programming interfaces, cybersecurity and certifications for consulting solutions. IBM also plans to form a team of "frontier deployment specialists" certified through OpenAI's partner network.
On the product side, IBM said it will integrate OpenAI's latest GPT-5.6 model, Codex and ChatGPT Work tools into IBM Consulting Advantage, its AI platform for consulting professionals. The goal is to help customers deploy AI applications in core business operations.
As part of the agreement, IBM will become an elite partner of OpenAI, reflecting the companies' shared focus on securely delivering enterprise AI at scale.
"The challenge is not getting access to AI, but how to integrate it securely and at scale into complex enterprise environments and workflows," Andy Baldwin, IBM Consulting's global senior vice president, said. He added that combining OpenAI's technology with IBM Consulting's existing AI assets, industry solutions and cybersecurity capabilities would help customers deploy AI applications securely and at scale.
Industry sources have pointed out that as competition among AI model developers shifts from building increasingly powerful models toward winning enterprise customers and achieving commercial deployment at scale, OpenAI has been actively expanding its partnerships across industries. OpenAI previously reached agreements with Indian IT-services giant Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
IBM also reached a similar strategic partnership with Anthropic in October 2025, incorporating the Claude model into its product portfolio. Analysts say adding OpenAI will further strengthen IBM's "model-agnostic" strategy. Under that approach, IBM uses its watsonx platform to integrate capabilities from third-party AI providers alongside its in-house Granite large-language-model family, positioning itself as an integrator of enterprise AI deployments rather than solely as a model provider.
The partnership comes as IBM's financial performance is under pressure. Its second-quarter earnings report, released in July, showed that the company lowered its full-year 2026 revenue outlook because revenue fell short of expectations.
Still, IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said on the earnings call that AI remains a long-term growth engine for the company. He said the adoption of AI applications would be a "complement," rather than a replacement, for demand for IBM's mainframe business.