IBM, OpenAI Partner to Accelerate Enterprise AI

IBM entered into a new partnership with OpenAI, bringing the AI lab’s frontier models to customers across industries, including finance, government, telecom and retail.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.Under the agreement, made public earlier this week, the companies will launch a specific OpenAI unit within IBM’s consulting team to train thousands of consultants on emerging AI technologies and associated cybersecurity threatsIBM said its consultants and engineers will work directly with customers to implement AI in complex workflows and regulated environments, with a particular focus on helping businesses move beyond experimentation and into wider deployment.OpenAI models, including GPT-5.6, alongside products such as Codex and ChatGPT Work, will also be integrated into IBM Consulting Advantage, the company's AI platform for consulting services.The partnership expands the companies' work on cybersecurity. In June, IBM joined OpenAI's Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. The new agreement builds on this focus, integrating OpenAI's AI capabilities with IBM Autonomous Security, IBM’s multi-agent cybersecurity service.Related:Lower Intro Price for Gemini 3.7 Flash to Attract DevelopersThe focus on secure AI implementation comes in the wake of several cybersecurity incidents involving rogue AI agents, with renewed attention to balancing safe deployment with rising usage.“The challenge is not access to AI technologies -- it’s integrating AI securely and at scale into complex enterprise environments and workflows,” Andy Baldwin, global senior vice president at IBM Consulting, said in a statement. “By embedding OpenAI’s technology with IBM Consulting’s AI assets, industry solutions, and cybersecurity capabilities, we can help clients accelerate secure, AI deployments at scale.” The alliance comes less than a year after IBM formed a similar partnership with Anthropic, integrating Claude into its development tools and expanding customer access to the model.The deals reflect IBM's broader push to help enterprises deploy AI, as model providers increasingly compete for corporate customers and large-scale workloads.About the AuthorContributing WriterScarlett Evans is a freelance writer with a focus on emerging technologies and the minerals industry. Previously, she served as assistant editor at IoT World Today, where she specialized in robotics and smart city technologies. Scarlett also has a background in the mining and resources sector, with experience at Mine Australia, Mine Technology and Power Technology. She joined Informa in April 2022 before transitioning to freelance work.