IBM announced on Thursday that it has joined forces with OpenAI to bring the company’s models and tools to its enterprise clients. This move opens a new path for OpenAI to reach some of the world’s largest firms through IBM’s global consulting division as competition for corporate AI spending grows.
Details of the financial terms were not disclosed. The agreement comes less than a year after IBM formed a similar alliance with Anthropic. OpenAI and IBM will jointly market AI offerings and develop industry-specific solutions for sectors including financial services, government, telecommunications, and retail.
Under the deal, IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI practice within IBM Consulting. Mike Healy, managing partner at IBM Consulting, told TechCrunch that the firm will train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI’s technologies over the next several months. He noted this work will primarily involve retraining existing employees.
The training will focus on OpenAI’s Codex, API, cybersecurity, and consultative solution credentials. IBM will also create a group of specialized “Forward Deployed Experts” trained through OpenAI’s Partner Network, according to Healy.
IBM said it would integrate OpenAI’s latest models, including GPT-5.6, Codex, and ChatGPT Work, into IBM Consulting Advantage. This is the firm’s AI platform for consultants designed to help clients deploy AI across core business operations.
The partnership is the latest in OpenAI’s push to expand its enterprise business through consulting firms and technology partners. Competition among AI model developers is increasingly shifting from building more capable models to winning corporate customers and large-scale deployments. The company has previously announced partnerships with IT services firms, including Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. This underscores a strategy of working with large global systems integrators to bring its AI products to enterprise customers.
For IBM, the agreement expands its range of frontier AI partnerships. The company pursues a model-agnostic strategy that combines its own Granite family of AI models with offerings from third-party developers. It has increasingly positioned itself as an integrator of multiple AI models through its watsonx platform and global consulting business.
The partnership also arrives as IBM looks to accelerate growth in its AI business after lowering its 2026 revenue forecast last month following weaker-than-expected quarterly results. During its last earnings call, Chief Executive Arvind Krishna maintained that AI remains a long-term growth driver. He stated that AI adoption was complementing, rather than replacing, demand for IBM’s mainframe business.
In June, IBM and OpenAI partnered for the cybersecurity-focused OpenAI Daybreak Cyber Partner Program. The new deal expands that relationship by integrating OpenAI’s AI models with IBM Autonomous Security, the company’s multi-agent-powered cybersecurity service.
What it means
For the people building and running these systems, the change is practical rather than theoretical. Consultants will spend months learning to operate specific tools like GPT-5.6 and Codex rather than generic platforms. Clients will see these capabilities embedded directly into IBM Consulting Advantage, allowing them to deploy AI across core business operations without switching between different vendor ecosystems. Security teams will gain access to models integrated specifically with IBM Autonomous Security. The shift is from selling abstract AI capabilities to selling trained experts who know exactly how to use specific models for specific industries.
