At the annual IBM Think 2024, Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, emphasized the transformative potential of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing during his recent keynote address.
Krishna underscored how these technologies are reaching maturity and can significantly enhance business operations.
Krishna pointed to IBM Technology Atlas, introduced last year, as a framework for understanding the evolution of these technologies. It is a roadmap of six technologies that are hoped to bring a new era of performance and efficiency to information technology and business.
“Artificial intelligence should be thought about in the same way as those fundamental technologies like the steam engine, electricity, or the internet,” Krishna said. “It’s only going to take a few short years and we will find it infusing everything.”
He noted that AI could contribute up to $4 trillion in annual GDP productivity by 2030.
IBM, which is one of the companies ahead of the curve when it comes to AI, realized much earlier the importance of transitioning from experimentation to large-scale deployment to unlock AI’s full benefits.
The company’s Watson X is gaining ground and is considered as a pivotal tool designed to accelerate AI deployment by providing a trusted environment for model experimentation and integration.
Open Source
IBM has decided to open-source its Granite models, a family of large language models (LLM) ranging from 3 billion to 34 billion parameters. Krishna explained that these models, purpose-built for specific tasks, offer high performance without necessarily being large. The models are licensed under Apache, allowing companies to keep their domain-specific data private while benefiting from advanced AI capabilities.
Examples of IBM’s AI applications were highlighted, demonstrating substantial productivity gains across various sectors. Krishna mentioned Broadridge, a fintech company, which saw significant programmer productivity improvements using IBM’s tools. In customer experience, a European telecom provider using Watson X reported a 40% increase in customer satisfaction and a 30% reduction in query resolution times.
IBM’s own Human Resources Center now handles 95% of queries through automation and AI.
Krishna also announced that Watson X would soon integrate with multiple platforms, including OpenShift, Adobe Experience Platform, AWS SageMaker, and Microsoft Azure, among others. These integrations aim to facilitate AI deployment across different cloud environments and enterprise applications.
IBM has collaborated with the National Innovation Center in Saudi Arabia to develop an Arabic language model, further expanding Watson X’s global reach. Krishna highlighted the extensive ecosystem IBM is building to drive business innovation through advanced AI and hybrid cloud solutions.