IBM announced a partnership with OpenAI, which it plans to use with its global consultancy to extend OpenAI models and tools to a larger number of business clients. This cooperation has created an additional channel for OpenAI to reach large companies as the competition for the AI budget rises.

IBM will have a dedicated team.

IBM indicated that it would jointly promote AI products and develop customized programmes for the financial services, government, telecommunications and retail sectors. According to the agreement, IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI operations team within IBM Consulting.

Mike Healy, IBM Consulting Management Partner, stated that in the coming months, the company would train and certify tens of thousands of consultants, focusing on the transfer of existing staff to build delivery capacity around OpenAI technology.

  • Training on Codex, API and Cybersecurity
  • Clients will also be certified for consulting solution coverage
  • IBM will also form a dedicated team of field-based experts.

Cooperation extended to industry applications

Healy states that this team of experts will be trained through OpenAI Partners Network. At the same time, IBM will connect the OpenAI model to its Multi-Intelligence Cybersecurity Service, expanding the scope of existing cooperation between the two sides.

In June this year, IBM and OpenAI have launched OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partners Program for Cybersecurity. This new agreement means that cooperation between the two parties is further expanding from a security scenario to a broader range of enterprise applications and industry solutions.

OpenAI continues to compete for corporate clients.

This collaboration is also the latest move by OpenAI to expand business. The importance of consulting firms and technical service partners is growing as the competition of model producers moves from a purely upgrading of model capabilities to competition for business clients and large-scale deployments.

Prior to this, OpenAI had established cooperation with IT service providers such as Infosys, Towers and others, in the hope of helping large system integrators to move their products faster to the business market.

For IBM, the agreement also expands its front-line model cooperative formation. IBM has announced similar cooperation with Anthropic less than a year ago. The company is currently pursuing a relatively neutral model strategy, advancing its own Granite model on the one hand, and integrating third-party models on the other, and external service delivery through the Watsonx platform and consultancy operations on the other.

Last month, IBM was revised downwards in 2026, when its quarterly performance fell short of expectations. The CEO of the company, Arvind Krishna, continued at the time to state that AI remained the driving force of long-term growth and stated that AI demand was a complement to, not a substitute for, its large machine operations.