IBM partners with OpenAI to expand its enterprise AI consulting push

IBM on Thursday announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring the AI company’s models and tools to more enterprise customers, opening another avenue for OpenAI to reach some of the world’s largest companies through IBM’s global consulting business. The deal, whose terms were not disclosed, comes less than a year after IBM announced 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 agreement, IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI practice within IBM Consulting and, over the next several months, train and certify tens of thousands of consultants — primarily by retraining existing employees — on OpenAI’s technologies, Mike Healy, managing partner at IBM Consulting, told TechCrunch. The training will focus on OpenAI’s Codex, its API, cybersecurity, and consultative solution credentials, and IBM will also create a group of specialized “Forward Deployed Experts” trained through OpenAI’s Partner Network. IBM said it would integrate OpenAI’s latest models, including GPT-5.6, Codex, and ChatGPT Work, into IBM Consulting Advantage, its AI platform for consultants, to help clients deploy AI across core business operations.

The partnership extends OpenAI’s push to expand its enterprise business through consulting firms and technology partners — following earlier tie-ups with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services — as competition among AI developers shifts from building more capable models to winning corporate customers and large-scale deployments. For IBM, it adds to a model-agnostic strategy that combines its own Granite AI models with third-party offerings through its watsonx platform and consulting business, and comes as IBM looks to accelerate AI-driven growth after lowering its 2026 revenue forecast last month following weaker-than-expected quarterly results. CEO Arvind Krishna has maintained that AI remains a long-term growth driver that complements, rather than replaces, demand for IBM’s mainframe business.

Why it matters

IBM is betting its consulting scale can turn OpenAI’s models into enterprise deployments faster than OpenAI could manage alone — a bet that only makes sense if IBM can retrain a huge consulting workforce before rivals do the same with other AI labs.