All in on hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna

Tech major IBM on Tuesday said the company is laser-focused on delivering critical innovations that clients need to realise the true potential of two key technologies -- hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence AI.

Tech major IBM on Tuesday said the company is ''laser-focused'' on delivering critical innovations that clients need to realise the true potential of two key technologies -- hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI). Delivering the keynote address at the company's Think 2021 event, IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, year 2020 will be seen as the year when the world entered the digital century in full force. ''We are all in on hybrid cloud and AI, precisely because we understand the immense possibilities it can open up for organisations, everywhere. We are laser-focused on delivering the critical innovations that you need to realise the true potential of hybrid cloud and AI,'' he said. He added that IBM is committed to these two areas because it understands that businesses need a clear and credible path to modernise their mission-critical systems with advanced cloud services. The top executive said the forces of digital technology are turning economies on their head, and 2020 was the first time in history that digital transformation spending accelerated despite GDP declining. ''I think we can all agree that as the world recovers, there's no going back, we'll reflect on this past year as the moment with the world entered the digital century in full force. Two key technologies that will determine the success of organisations are hybrid cloud and AI,'' he noted. Krishna cited an IBM study on the adoption of AI for business that revealed that the imperative to embed AI into business processes has become more urgent during the pandemic. Of IT professionals surveyed, 43 per cent said their companies had accelerated their rollout of AI. Nearly half of global IT professionals surveyed said they evaluate AI providers in large part on their ability to automate processes. ''That is why IBM has invested heavily in building rich and powerful AI capabilities for business,'' Krishna said. In terms of India-specific findings, over half (53 per cent) of Indian IT professionals said their company has accelerated its rollout of AI due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly all (95 per cent) IT professional respondents from India said they believe that it is critical or very important to their business that they can trust the AI's output is fair, safe and reliable. Krishna also outlined various innovations being introduced that are designed to equip businesses for the next stage of their digital journeys. These include Watson Orchestrate helping professionals automate work to increase productivity, launch of Maximo Mobile (an easy-to-deploy mobile platform with IBM's Maximo asset management solution at the core) and release of Project CodeNet (a large-scale, open source dataset comprised of millions of code samples to enable AI's understanding and translation of code). Also, EY and IBM are creating a Financial Services Center of Excellence for Hybrid Cloud that offers new open hybrid cloud solutions built with Red Hat OpenShift for the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. As part of its previously announced USD 1 billion investment to support its partner ecosystem, IBM has unveiled new competencies, skills training, and benefits to ensure its partners succeed in an increasingly competitive market. IBM ecosystem partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already achieved competencies for building an industrial and manufacturing AI solution for data scientists and AI developers.

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