IBM and Microsoft have launched Imagine Enterprise, a joint platform that helps companies build, run and control AI agents.
AI agents are software tools that can carry out tasks on their own, and the platform is designed to handle processes specific to particular industries.
IBM Consulting is supplying more than 6,000 ready-made agents and tools from its own consulting platform.
Microsoft is providing the cloud computing, data management and security systems, drawing on Azure and a range of its other business software.
Both companies will send engineers to work directly with customers on qualifying projects.
The aim is to help businesses move AI from small trials into everyday use, rather than leaving them to put the pieces together themselves.
Mohamad Ali, head of IBM Consulting, said clients no longer wanted AI that simply helped people do the same work a little faster.
"They want to build an agentic business," he said.
Starting with finance and retail
The platform will initially focus on banking, insurance and retail.
IBM and Microsoft plan to extend it to manufacturing, energy, the public sector and transport.
SEI, a financial technology and investment services company, is among the first organisations trying it out.
Keeping agents in check
Control over the agents is central to the offer.
The platform gives each agent a verified identity, limits what it can access and tracks what it does across a company's systems.
IBM set out these capabilities in a separate announcement on 27 October.
Customers can hire IBM Consulting to install and run the platform for them, work with IBM on large projects, or manage it themselves.
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