IBM Makes Massive OpenAI Push, Plans Thousands-Strong AI Practice Weeks After CEO Admitted It ‘Did Not Move Quickly Enough’

IBM Consulting will integrate OpenAI’s frontier models and products into its AI platform while launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice with thousands of consultants and engineers.

• IBM announced that as part of its collaboration with OpenAI, it will help enterprises deploy AI across core operations, modernize legacy applications and strengthen cybersecurity.
• The partnership will embed OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, Codex and ChatGPT Work into IBM Consulting Advantage to help clients redesign workflows across finance, procurement, customer operations and human resources.
• IBM will also deploy specialized engineers and consultants trained through the OpenAI Partner Network, while launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice with thousands of certified experts.

Shares of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) are in focus on Thursday after the company announced a major push into enterprise AI through a new partnership with OpenAI.

As part of the partnership, IBM Consulting will integrate OpenAI’s frontier models and products into its AI platform while launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice with thousands of consultants and engineers.

IBM shares were up nearly 2% in Thursday’s pre-market trade.

IBM, OpenAI Target Legacy Workflows

IBM announced that as part of its collaboration with OpenAI, it will help enterprises deploy AI across core operations, modernize legacy applications and strengthen cybersecurity.

The partnership will embed OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, Codex and ChatGPT Work into IBM Consulting Advantage to help clients redesign workflows across finance, procurement, customer operations and human resources.

IBM will also deploy specialized engineers and consultants trained through the OpenAI Partner Network, while launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice with thousands of certified experts. The company will also will join OpenAI’s Elite partner tier.

“While enterprises are rapidly investing in AI, they are looking for practical ways to apply it across their core operations to deliver measurable business outcomes and create new commercial models,” said Andy Baldwin, Global Senior Vice President of IBM Consulting.

IBM To Focus On Cybersecurity And Modernizing Software

IBM and OpenAI will expand their collaboration following IBM’s participation in the OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. The companies plan to combine OpenAI’s models with IBM Autonomous Security, a multi-agent-powered service designed for coordinated decision-making, response and intelligence.

The companies said the cybersecurity effort will address AI model risk as well as application-layer vulnerabilities, governance gaps and other operational risks associated with deploying AI.

“The challenge is not access to AI technologies — it’s integrating AI securely and at scale into complex enterprise environments and workflows,” Baldwin said.

The partnership will also target legacy application modernization and software development. IBM said clients will be able to combine OpenAI Codex and ChatGPT Work with its industry and technology expertise to simplify engineering processes and accelerate the development of digital products and services.

IBM CEO Acknowledges AI Missteps

The partnership comes weeks after IBM CEO Arvind Krishna acknowledged that the company had not responded quickly enough to shifting customer spending and broader market conditions during the second quarter.

In a letter to investors, Krishna said IBM’s performance fell short of expectations, with clients shifting capital expenditures toward servers, storage and memory purchases amid concerns about supply constraints and price increases.

“These conditions require our teams to execute perfectly, and this quarter we faltered,” Krishna said. “We did not adapt and move quickly enough, and numerous large deals failed to close on the timelines we expected, driving the majority of our shortfall.”

Krishna added that the company was taking steps to address the issues, saying, “To remedy challenges this quarter, we are undertaking new initiatives and accelerating others, all to improve our results going forward.”

Earlier this week, IBM signed a $240 million multi-year agreement with Together AI to deploy a large-scale Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) HGX B300 cluster on IBM Cloud, with availability expected in the first quarter of 2027. The cluster will support Together AI’s open-source AI inference workloads and is designed to deliver faster, more efficient production-scale AI.

What Retail Traders Think Of IBM Stock

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around IBM trended in the ‘extremely bullish’ territory, with message volumes at ‘extremely high’ levels at the time of writing.

IBM stock is down 20% year-to-date, but up 1% over the past 12 months. The S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) is up 20% over the past 12 months, while the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF (VTI) is up 21%.

The Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ) is up 41% during this period, while the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW) is up 36%.

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