17 August 2026

IBM and OpenAI announce partnership to sell AI services to enterprises

IBM, the infrastructure and consulting company, will train tens of thousands of its consultants on OpenAI's models, ChatGPT and GPT-5.6, over the next several months.
IBM will create a dedicated OpenAI practice within its consulting division and integrate OpenAI's tools into its Consulting Advantage platform, which helps clients deploy AI across business operations.
The companies will jointly market AI solutions tailored to specific industries including financial services, government, telecommunications, and retail, with no financial terms disclosed.
IBM is pursuing a strategy of combining multiple AI models from different developers rather than relying on a single provider, having previously partnered with Anthropic.
The deal reflects a broader shift in AI competition from building more capable models to winning large corporate contracts and enterprise deployments.