International Business Machines Corp Stock Price, News & Analysis

Lumen Technologies and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions at the edge, integrating IBM's watsonx AI portfolio with Lumen's Edge Cloud infrastructure. The partnership aims to enable real-time AI inferencing closer to data generation points, offering <5ms latency and direct cloud connectivity.

IBM Consulting will serve as the preferred systems integrator, helping clients scale deployments and reduce costs. The collaboration targets multiple industries including financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, focusing on enabling faster insights and lower operational costs. A practical example includes helping a major retailer enhance customer service through AI-driven digital assistants and visual inspection tools.

IBM unveiled groundbreaking hybrid AI technologies at its THINK event, focusing on enterprise-scale AI implementation. The company introduced key innovations including: watsonx Orchestrate with AI agent capabilities that integrate with 80+ business applications, allowing agent creation in under 5 minutes; webMethods Hybrid Integration projected to deliver 176% ROI over three years; enhanced watsonx.data delivering 40% more accurate AI through improved unstructured data handling; and the new IBM LinuxONE 5 platform capable of processing 450 billion AI inference operations daily. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna emphasized that competitive advantage now comes from purpose-built AI integration driving measurable outcomes. The company projects over one billion apps by 2028 and is positioning these solutions to help enterprises overcome AI scaling challenges across fragmented environments.

A new IBM global study reveals CEOs are heavily investing in AI despite implementation challenges. The survey of 2,000 CEOs found that AI investment growth rates are expected to more than double in the next two years, with 61% actively adopting AI agents. While 72% view their organizational data as key to unlocking generative AI value, 50% acknowledge issues with disconnected technology due to rapid investments. Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI, with just 16% scaled enterprise-wide. Looking ahead, 85% of CEOs expect positive ROI from AI efficiency investments by 2027. The study also highlights talent challenges, with 54% hiring for AI roles that didn't exist a year ago, and 31% of the workforce requiring retraining over the next three years.

IBM and Oracle have expanded their partnership to advance AI and hybrid cloud capabilities. The collaboration includes making IBM's watsonx portfolio available on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Key announcements include: watsonx Orchestrate will be available on OCI in July to support multi-agent workflows, IBM's Granite family of AI models will be accessible through OCI Data Science, and IBM Envizi ESG Suite will launch on OCI starting in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, watsonx.ai is now certified to run on OCI. IBM Consulting is expanding its services to help customers implement AI agents across platforms and migrate workloads to Red Hat OpenShift on OCI.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and EY have announced the launch of EY.ai for tax, built with IBM's watsonx AI technology. The solution combines IBM's AI capabilities with EY's tax expertise to revolutionize tax compliance processes. Three key AI-enabled solutions have been introduced:

1. Intelligent Tax Data Lake: Consolidates tax filing data from multiple sources using watsonx.data and watsonx.ai 2. Detect and Correct with Business Documents: Extracts and verifies data from unstructured invoices 3. Withholding Tax Determinations: Automates monthly withholding tax rate calculations

Currently implemented in IBM's Tax Department, these solutions are expected to save tens of thousands of hours annually, with IBM on track to automate 80% of its foreign tax compliance. The system streamlines data consolidation from 36 sources while prioritizing security and trust in handling sensitive tax data.

IBM and Scuderia Ferrari HP have launched a reimagined mobile app powered by watsonx AI to enhance the Formula 1 fan experience for nearly 400 million global Tifosi. The app, now available in English and Italian, features new AI-driven capabilities including race recaps, historical stats, and interactive features.

Key innovations include AI-generated race summaries, post-race insights with data visualizations, and historical comparisons using IBM Granite LLMs. The app introduces fan engagement features like direct messaging to the team, daily interactive polls, and iconic race highlights.

The partnership focuses on combining IBM's data and AI technologies with Ferrari's racing heritage to create a comprehensive digital fan experience. Available on both Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the app will continue to receive new features throughout 2025, demonstrating both companies' commitment to innovation in fan engagement.

IBM has announced its board of directors' approval for an increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend to $1.68 per common share. This marks a significant milestone as it represents the 30th consecutive year of dividend increases for the technology giant.

The dividend will be payable on June 10, 2025, to stockholders of record as of May 9, 2025. This decision reinforces IBM's long-standing commitment to shareholder returns, as the company has maintained an unbroken streak of paying quarterly dividends since 1916.

IBM has launched a new Microsoft Practice within IBM Consulting, strengthening their partnership to deliver AI, cloud, and security transformations. The practice integrates IBM's industry expertise with Microsoft's technology portfolio including Copilot, Azure OpenAI, Azure Cloud, Fabric, and Sentinel.

The initiative brings together over 33,000 Microsoft-certified professionals across global markets, offering clients:

• Innovation in cloud, AI, data and security
• Global implementation capabilities
• End-to-end transformation services
• Enterprise-grade security controls

The practice features integration with IBM Consulting Advantage platform and advanced Copilot capabilities. IBM has already completed 14,000 Microsoft projects globally and offers over 30 IBM Software solutions on Microsoft Azure. Notable success includes the State of Arizona Department of Child Safety's implementation of Microsoft generative AI solutions.