IBM Expands Watson’s Impact through New Products and Partnerships

IBM Expands Watson’s Impact through New Products and Partnerships

IBM introduced Concert, a system powered by genAI, at the Think 2024 event. Concert is an automation tool designed to analyze a company’s applications for potential problems.

During the event, IBM addressed the obstacles faced by companies looking to integrate generative AI into their organizations. IBM showcased improvements to its Watsonx AI platform and announced new partnerships with tech giants like AWS, Meta, Adobe, Microsoft, Mistral, Salesforce, and SAP. These partnerships aim to make it easier for customers to use tools from IBM and its partners together, addressing a key challenge in early GenAI implementations.

IBM has expanded its Watsonx platform by adding capabilities like Code Assistant for Z and Code Assistant for Specialized Domains, which utilize IBM’s assistant technology and open source Granite core models. These tools help organizations modernize applications for legacy IBM technologies, like Z mainframes, and address challenges in programming in older languages like COBOL.

In addition to these tools, IBM also introduced InstructLAB, a technology developed with IBM Research and RedHat that uses synthetic data to train and tune models more efficiently. IBM also unveiled deployable architectures, which are templates for application creation that integrate pre-built infrastructure elements, cloud connections, and best practices learned by IBM’s consulting group. These architectures are expected to save time for organizations as they start development projects.

A significant announcement at the event was the debut of IBM Concert, described as the “nerve center” of a company’s technology and operations. This automation system, powered by GenAI, analyzes an organization’s applications for potential problems, security issues, and more. Concert integrates IBM’s best practice knowledge and connects to CI/CD pipelines, cloud-based data warehouses, and other application management applications. The initial release of Concert focuses on application risk and compliance management.

Overall, the tools presented by IBM at the Think event are aimed at helping organizations integrate GenAI into their operations. While not as groundbreaking as the launch of Watsonx at the previous year’s event, these tools represent steps towards real-world GenAI deployments.

IBM’s partnerships with major tech companies like AWS aim to make it easier for customers to use IBM’s tools alongside other technologies. The collaboration with AWS brings Watsonx.governance features to Amazon’s SageMaker service, providing customers with a more robust way to manage governance issues related to AI models. This partnership also expands the reach of IBM’s governance expertise to a broader customer base.

Article Source
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobodonnell/2024/05/23/ibm-extends-reach-of-watsonx-with-products-and-partnerships/