IBM and Microsoft launch Imagine Enterprise, a joint AI agent platform
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Imagine Enterprise is the joint bet of IBM and Microsoft to help companies, especially in regulated sectors, set up and control AI agents tailored to them. IBM Consulting brings more than 6,000 agents and AI assets, and Microsoft supplies Azure, its AI and security. SEI, from the financial sector, is already exploring these technologies, and the offer opens with finance, insurance and retail.
On Tuesday, November 10, IBM and Microsoft unveiled Imagine Enterprise, an agentic platform that lets companies create, launch and govern AI agents (programs that carry out tasks on their own) inside the processes specific to their industry. According to the joint announcement, it is aimed mainly at regulated sectors: it links the work of people and agents with each company's data and day-to-day operations, and adds controls, observability and support for complying with AI rules.
The split is clear. IBM Consulting contributes over 6,000 ready-made AI agents and assets, running on its delivery platform, IBM Consulting Advantage, while Microsoft supplies the base for AI, data, cloud and security. To coordinate agents, the list of Microsoft and GitHub components includes Copilot Studio, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Foundry; for data, identity, governance and cloud, it names Azure, Defender, Purview, Entra and Fabric. Engineers from both companies can work on site with qualifying customers to help them move from trials to production.
The industry frameworks start with financial services, insurance and retail, and the companies name manufacturing, energy, the public sector and mobility as possible future additions. There are three ways to sign up: IBM Consulting deploys and runs the platform for the customer, the customer builds large-scale rollouts together with IBM Consulting, or the customer manages it in-house. The announcement gives no pricing.
SEI, which provides technology, operations and asset management to the financial sector, is exploring agentic technologies with IBM Consulting and support from Microsoft. Mohamad Ali, head of IBM Consulting, sums up the aim: clients "want to build an agentic business."
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The underlying message is that AI agents for large companies are no longer sold as software you install, but as a service with a consultancy included. IBM brings knowledge of each industry and the people who implement it; Microsoft, the infrastructure and control over identities and data. Starting with finance and insurance makes sense: these are sectors where auditing and traceability matter as much as automation. Still unanswered are the price and how much in-house work the self-managed option requires, which the announcement mentions without detail. For a mid-sized company, the useful question is whether its current cloud provider already offers something similar without going through a consultancy.
Official source: IBM · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
