Building on the foundation it has established before COVID-19 almost ground businesses into a halt, technology giant IBM is further strengthening innovations in hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), Arvind Krishna, chair and CEO, IBM, announced at the 2021 IBM Think Conference.

“IBM is all-in on hybrid cloud and AI, precisely because we understand the immense possibilities it can open up for organizations everywhere,” Krishna said in his keynote address. “Our hybrid cloud strategy is about meeting you where you are in your journey. And it’s about giving you the tools to deploy and leverage the capabilities and benefits of the cloud across a whole spectrum of environments, including at the edge.”

Krishna further highlighted the mission of IBM to assist organizations in their digital transformation noting that only 25% of workloads have moved to the cloud. He underscored the role of the hybrid cloud in defining the technology strategy of businesses over the next decades.

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Businesses are digging into AI technology realizing that the pandemic has made it an even more critical technology for businesses to survive and thrive. Quoting its own study, IBM saw that 43% of organizations surveyed had accelerated their rollout of AI with a unique focus on automation.

Data

“I believe we are entering an era in which computing can — and must — happen everywhere, from data centers to public clouds, to the very edges of the network,” Krishna said. “And this is a world that’s made possible by hybrid cloud. In the same way that we have electrified factories and machines in the past century, we will infuse AI into software and systems in the 21st century. What’s critical to understand is that the percentage of AI adoption is still in the single digits. What we are seeing today is that it is data — not just software — that is eating the world.”

In last year’s edition of IBM Think, Krishn emphasized how the pandemic accelerated digital transformation among organizations. This year, he highlighted the impact of digital technology not only on businesses but on each country’s economy. He noted how on the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, “the world enters the digital century in full force.”

“Companies are rebuilding their entire business models around the possibilities of digital technologies like hybrid cloud and AI,” Krishna said. “And by doing so they are infusing greater intelligence into the core processes that underpin their business. This is why having a strong digital foundation is no longer just seen as a source of competitive advantage, but an existential priority.”