IBM Consulting has introduced a groundbreaking platform, IBM Consulting Advantage, aimed at revolutionizing the consulting landscape by integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into their services. The platform is designed to provide IBM consultants with a suite of tools and assets, enhancing consistency, repeatability, and speed in delivering solutions to clients.
The cornerstone of IBM Consulting Advantage is its library of role-based IBM Consulting Assistants, accessible through an intuitive conversational interface powered by IBM watsonx, the company's AI and data platform. Consultants can leverage these assistants for various tasks, such as use case prioritization, business case development, persona creation for user-centric design, and even code generation and conversion.
Early adopter teams utilizing aspects of IBM Consulting Advantage reported remarkable productivity improvements of up to 50% during application design, development, and testing client pilot phases. The platform's versatility allows consultants to toggle across multiple IBM and third-party generative AI models, enabling them to compare outputs and select the most suitable model for their tasks.
IBM Consulting Assistants, trained on IBM proprietary data, provide tailored prompts, models, and output formats, placing the collective knowledge of the company and the wider industry at the fingertips of 160,000 IBM consultants. The platform's interface facilitates easy uploading of project-specific documents, offering rapid insights that can be seamlessly integrated into common business tools.
The platform embeds capabilities for data security and privacy, addressing concerns around personal identifiable information (PII). IBM Consulting Assistants can be configured with private instances of generative AI models that do not store data, and they include integrated AI guardrails to mitigate bias, ensuring auditable use.
Clients, including global business decisioning data and analytics provider Dun & Bradstreet, have recognized the value of IBM Consulting Advantage. Dun & Bradstreet plans to collaborate with IBM consultants to build and scale new AI use cases, leveraging the platform's capabilities to improve employee productivity and customer experiences.
IBM Consulting Advantage extends its impact across various industries, offering preconfigured solutions powered by watsonx and partner technology. In 2023 alone, IBM Consulting assisted hundreds of clients in applying AI from IBM and strategic partners in their digital transformation journey.
The platform will be integrated across the breadth of IBM Consulting's services, covering strategy, experience, technology, and operations. It complements the existing IBM Garage engagement model, designed to fast-track innovation and transparently track business outcomes.
This announcement builds on IBM Consulting's initiatives in 2023, which included the formation of a Center of Excellence for Generative AI and strengthened collaborations with strategic partners such as Adobe, AWS, Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Salesforce, and SAP. IBM continues to be a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, assisting clients in over 175 countries with insights from their data, streamlined business processes, and a competitive edge in their industries.
