IBM Consulting, IBM's consulting arm, has created a Center of Excellence (CoE) for generative AI to help accelerate companies' business transformations by leveraging the recently announced IBM watsonx, as well as technology from the IBM partner ecosystem.
The CoE is built into the existing global AI and Automation practice, which includes 21,000 data and AI consultants who have performed over 40,000 customer interactions. In turn, this center already has more than 1,000 consultants specializing in generative AI worldwide, who are interacting with various clients to drive productivity in IT operations and key business processes.
Generative AI has rapidly progressed beyond experimentation; companies are adopting it to improve customer service, take advantage of new market opportunities and more functionality. A recent global study by the IBM Institute for Business Value¹ found that organizations are using generative AI in finance (34%), human resources (41%), supply chain (45%), marketing and sales (40%), customer service (57%) and IT and technology services (63%).
Marco Kalil, leader of IBM Consulting in Brazil
“Generative AI can help organizations transform their mission-critical processes to generate business value, under an ethically responsible approach”, explains Marco Kalil, leader of IBM Consulting in Brazil. "Our experience shows us that to increase AI within organizations requires a multi-model strategy and an approach based on human-centric principles."
Tested methods and a culture of AI innovation
The CoE takes advantage of stack full suite of generative AI technology, including foundational models and over 50 industry-specific classic machine learning accelerators designed to help customers increase productivity and drive innovation. It will also use IBM's 'AI advisor' toolkit to improve internal operations and delivery to customers. In addition, the CoE will develop new solutions and assets with customers and partners, leveraging IBM Research's portfolio of generative AI innovations.
With IBM Garage for Generative AI, IBM consultants apply a proven collaborative method to help clients accelerate innovation in the emerging category of foundational models for generative AI. This includes rapidly designing and prioritizing use cases, an open, multi-model approach to selecting architectures and training, and fine-tuning and scaling models for unique business needs.
IBM Consulting and watsonx
As well as establishing a hybrid cloud services business based on the Red Hat® OpenShift® platform, IBM Consulting intends to be the leading provider of consulting services for IBM watsonx² – the next generation platform for AI and data, designed to enable companies to scale and accelerate the impact of more advanced AI with trusted data. IBM Consulting plans to build a watsonx-centric practice to serve clients with a strong experience across the stack of generative AI technology such as foundational models, AIOps, DataOps and AI governance mechanisms, as well as expanding our consulting business with partners.
An open ecosystem approach to AI
IBM Consulting takes an open, collaborative approach to plan, build, deploy and operate generative AI solutions that span multiple models across multiple industry clouds. An open ecosystem approach helps customers define the right models and architecture to deliver the best results. IBM Consulting has unique skills in IBM technology, but also works closely with a diverse ecosystem of AI partners, including Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, open source technologies and more, to help ensure customers benefit from the technology solution that best meets their needs.
CoE is growing fast. In 2023 alone, IBM Consulting has engaged with over 100 clients around the world utilizing generative AI in conjunction with machine learning AI strategies. One example includes delivering spoken – AI-generated – sports commentary to millions of fans across the world. golf masters. In early work, IBM Consulting observed that some clients experienced an acceleration of up to 70% in time to value with fundamental models compared to traditional AI approaches.
[1] Future Trends Executive Pulse Survey surveyed nearly 600 C-Suite executives across the US, IBM Institute for Business Value, April 2023
[2] The IBM Watsonx platform consists of three unique product sets expected to be generally available later this year.
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