IBM and global technology company e& announced a strategic partnership to move e& closer to an enterprise-grade agentic AI foundation, beginning with policy, risk, and compliance.
The effort, which was unveiled at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, represents e&’s transition from chatbots based on natural language processing (NLP) to controlled, action-oriented AI integrated into key corporate systems.
To assist staff and auditors in rapidly accessing and interpreting legal, regulatory, and compliance information, e& and IBM have developed an agentic AI solution based on IBM Watsonx Orchestrate, a platform that offers more than 500 tools and customized, domain-specific agents from IBM and its partners.
The solution provides transparent, traceable responses that are in line with enterprise governance requirements when integrated with IBM OpenPages and the larger Watsonx portfolio.
Within eight weeks, IBM, GBM (Gulf Business Machines), and e& produced a combined proof of concept that showed how agentic AI can function at enterprise size in practical settings.
The design and integration of the agentic AI solution were spearheaded by IBM’s Client Engineering team, with GBM facilitating delivery through project management and in-depth knowledge of e&’s OpenPages and Watsonx Assistant environment.
In keeping with e&’s governance, risk, and compliance framework, the work demonstrated AI capabilities that go beyond conventional question-and-answer tools to enable reasoning and action.
“Our ambition is to move beyond isolated AI use cases toward enterprise-scale agentic AI that is trusted, governed, and deeply integrated into how the organization operates.”
said Hatem Dowidar, Group CEO, e&.
“By collaborating with IBM, we are embedding intelligence directly into our risk and compliance processes, enabling faster decisions, consistent policy interpretation, and a foundation for broader agentic AI adoption across the enterprise.”
Beyond chat-based engagements, IBM Watsonx Orchestrate provides agentic AI by enabling AI agents to reason, plan tasks, and interface with corporate systems under governance rules.
For e&, it offers a basis for dependable, comprehensible AI that can grow across enterprise domains such as compliance. It facilitates 24/7 self-service access throughout the company, expedites compliance duties, and shortens response times.
A solid foundation for AI governance, explainability, and compliance by design is provided by the initiative’s inherent alignment with Watsonx.governance, which is already in use at e&.
One of the first enterprise-grade agentic AI implementations in the area, it shows how AI can support reliable, human-led decision-making under operational and regulatory requirements by integrating agentic AI directly into the OpenPages governance, risk, and compliance platform.
The deployment also shows how IBM’s AI and model gateway strategy is flexible, allowing big language models to operate in hybrid environments, including infrastructure maintained by customers, while still being subject to enterprise rules.
“As organizations move from experimenting with AI to embedding it into the fabric of how they operate, governance and accountability become just as important as intelligence.”
said Ana Paula Assis, SVP and Chair for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, IBM.
“Through our collaboration with e&, this proof of concept intends to demonstrate how agentic AI can be designed and validated for enterprise-scale use, deeply integrated into core systems, governed by design, and trusted to support human-led decisions and outcomes.”
This partnership creates a scalable and controlled framework for agentic AI adoption throughout the company, marking a significant turning point in e&’s business AI journey.
e& is reaffirming its dedication to responsible innovation and establishing a new standard for reliable, enterprise-grade agentic AI in the area by integrating action-oriented AI directly into core governance and compliance workflows.