ARMONK, N.Y., August 13, 2026 — IBM has announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI aimed at helping enterprises move beyond AI experimentation and deploy advanced artificial intelligence across core business operations, complex workflows, application modernization, and cybersecurity.
The collaboration brings together OpenAI’s frontier AI models and products with IBM Consulting’s enterprise transformation expertise, industry solutions, AI delivery capabilities, and cybersecurity technologies. The partnership is designed to help organizations turn legacy processes and fragmented systems into AI-ready operations while maintaining the security, governance, and resilience required in highly regulated business environments.
As enterprises increasingly look to AI to improve productivity, modernize technology, and create new business models, IBM and OpenAI are positioning their collaboration around a critical challenge: making advanced AI practical, secure, and scalable across the systems that run modern organizations.
The partnership includes joint go-to-market initiatives and the development of industry-specific solutions for sectors including financial services, government, telecommunications, and retail, alongside enterprise functions such as finance, procurement, customer operations, and human resources.
Bringing OpenAI’s Advanced AI Into Enterprise Consulting
At the center of the partnership is the integration of OpenAI frontier models, including GPT-5.6, as well as products such as Codex and ChatGPT Work, into IBM Consulting Advantage, IBM’s AI platform for delivering consulting services to clients.
By combining AI agents, industry-specific assets, technology expertise, and cybersecurity capabilities, the companies aim to provide enterprises with a more integrated path to deploying AI across their organizations.
IBM Consulting Advantage is designed to help organizations examine existing operating procedures and workflows, identify inefficiencies, and determine where AI can automate, simplify, and streamline work. The integration with OpenAI technologies is expected to help organizations apply AI within existing business contexts rather than treating AI as a separate technology layer.
This approach could be particularly important for large organizations where decades of accumulated processes, applications, data, and operational systems can make AI adoption significantly more complicated than simply introducing a new AI tool.
Specialized Teams to Help Enterprises Become AI-Ready
IBM will establish specialized forward-deployed teams consisting of engineers and consultants trained through the OpenAI Partner Network. These teams will work directly with clients to accelerate AI implementation across complex workflows and highly regulated environments.
The company is also launching a dedicated OpenAI Practice, backed by thousands of IBM consultants and engineers who will obtain advanced certifications through the OpenAI Partner Network.
The initiative is intended to combine specialized AI expertise with IBM’s experience in enterprise transformation, allowing organizations to move more quickly from AI strategy and experimentation to implementation and measurable business outcomes.
For enterprises operating with complex technology environments, this human expertise could be particularly important. AI adoption often requires more than selecting a model or deploying an application. Organizations must also redesign processes, integrate existing applications, address data challenges, establish governance frameworks, and ensure that AI systems operate safely within business environments.
Three Key Areas of the IBM and OpenAI Partnership
The collaboration will focus on three major areas that are central to enterprise AI adoption.
1. Transforming Legacy Operations Into AI-Ready Workflows
One of the biggest obstacles to enterprise AI adoption is the complexity of legacy operations.
IBM and OpenAI plan to address this challenge by embedding OpenAI models and products into IBM Consulting Advantage, helping organizations integrate AI into everyday business processes.
The technology can be used to analyze operating procedures and workflows, identify inefficiencies, and support the redesign of processes around AI. The initial focus includes functions such as finance, procurement, customer operations, and HR.
Rather than simply automating individual tasks, the companies aim to help businesses rethink how work is performed across interconnected processes.
This could allow enterprises to move from isolated AI use cases toward broader AI-driven operating models.
2. Modernizing Applications and Accelerating Product Development
The partnership will also target one of the most persistent challenges facing large organizations: modernizing legacy applications.
IBM plans to combine OpenAI Codex and ChatGPT Work with its industry, technology, and domain expertise to help clients improve software engineering and application modernization.
The collaboration is expected to support organizations in simplifying engineering processes, accelerating software development, and creating new digital products and services.
For companies operating large portfolios of legacy applications, AI-assisted development could help reduce the complexity involved in maintaining and modernizing existing systems while enabling development teams to spend more time on higher-value innovation.
The integration with IBM Consulting Advantage is intended to bring these capabilities into broader enterprise transformation programs rather than treating software development as an isolated activity.
3. Strengthening Cybersecurity and AI Risk Management
As AI adoption accelerates, cybersecurity and AI risk management are becoming increasingly important considerations for enterprises.
IBM and OpenAI plan to expand their cybersecurity collaboration following IBM’s participation in the OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program.
The companies will combine OpenAI’s advanced AI capabilities with IBM Autonomous Security, a multi-agent-powered service designed to support coordinated decision-making, response, and intelligence at machine speed.
The objective is to help organizations address an increasingly complex threat landscape in which cyberattacks themselves can become more sophisticated through the use of AI.
The partnership will also focus on AI-specific risks, including application-layer vulnerabilities, governance gaps, and operational challenges that could prevent organizations from adopting AI at scale.
By addressing cybersecurity and AI risk alongside deployment, IBM and OpenAI aim to give enterprises a stronger foundation for building AI into mission-critical operations.
IBM and OpenAI Target the Enterprise AI Adoption Gap
The partnership comes at a time when organizations are investing heavily in artificial intelligence but are still working through the challenges of translating AI capabilities into measurable business results.
For many large enterprises, the issue is no longer access to AI models. Instead, the challenge lies in integrating AI into existing operations without disrupting critical systems or compromising security and governance.
IBM and OpenAI are seeking to address this gap by combining advanced AI technology with consulting expertise and enterprise implementation capabilities.
“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, IBM Consulting. “The challenge is not access to AI technologies; it’s integrating AI securely and at scale into complex enterprise environments and workflows. By embedding OpenAI’s technology with IBM Consulting’s AI assets, industry solutions, and cybersecurity capabilities, we can help clients accelerate secure, AI deployments at scale.”
Denise Dresser, Chief Revenue Officer at OpenAI, emphasized the importance of making AI a trusted part of everyday business operations.
“The organizations pulling ahead with AI are the ones turning it into a trusted part of how their business operates,” said Dresser. “IBM Consulting and OpenAI are helping organizations make that shift, combining deep transformation expertise to deploy AI that is secure, operational, and aligned with real business priorities.”
IBM Joins OpenAI’s Elite Partner Tier
As part of the expanded relationship, IBM will join OpenAI’s Elite partner tier, highlighting the companies’ shared focus on enterprise-ready and secure AI deployment.
The move further strengthens the partnership’s emphasis on helping organizations operationalize AI rather than limiting adoption to pilot projects and experimental use cases.
With IBM’s global consulting footprint and OpenAI’s advanced AI technologies, the companies intend to support enterprises as they redesign workflows, modernize applications, improve cybersecurity, and build AI into critical business functions.
A New Phase for Enterprise AI
The IBM and OpenAI partnership reflects a broader shift in the enterprise AI market. Businesses are increasingly moving from asking what AI can do to determine where AI can deliver measurable value, how it can be integrated safely, and how it can operate reliably at scale.
By bringing frontier AI models into enterprise consulting workflows, establishing specialized implementation teams, and building a dedicated OpenAI Practice, IBM is positioning the collaboration as a comprehensive AI deployment initiative.
For organizations managing complex legacy infrastructure, regulated operations, and increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, the ability to combine AI innovation with enterprise-grade implementation and risk management could become a decisive factor in determining how quickly they can realize value from artificial intelligence.
IBM and OpenAI’s partnership ultimately aims to bridge that gap, helping enterprises transform fragmented legacy operations into more intelligent, automated, secure, and AI-ready businesses.
About IBM
IBM is a global provider of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, and consulting technologies and services. The company helps clients in more than 175 countries use data and technology to streamline business processes, reduce costs, and strengthen their competitive position. Governments and businesses across critical infrastructure sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare, rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift for digital transformation. IBM also develops technologies spanning AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions, and consulting, with a focus on trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.
Media Contact:
Elizabeth Brophy
IBM
Elizabeth.Brophy@ibm.com
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