Global technology group e& has announced a strategic collaboration with IBM to establish an enterprise-grade agentic AI foundation, beginning with policy, risk, and compliance operations. Revealed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, this initiative signals a major shift in e&’s AI strategy from traditional NLP-driven chatbots to governed, action-oriented AI that operates directly within core enterprise systems.
Rather than limiting AI to basic question-and-answer functions, e& and IBM are introducing an advanced agentic AI solution powered by IBM watsonx Orchestrate. This platform offers access to more than 500 tools and customizable, domain-specific agents developed by IBM and its ecosystem partners. As a result, employees and auditors can now retrieve, interpret, and act on legal, regulatory, and compliance information more efficiently. Furthermore, by integrating the solution with IBM OpenPages and the broader watsonx portfolio, the companies have ensured that responses are not only accurate but also traceable, explainable, and aligned with enterprise governance standards.
To validate the concept under real-world conditions, IBM, Gulf Business Machines (GBM), and e& jointly delivered a proof of concept in just eight weeks. This rapid execution demonstrated how agentic AI can operate at enterprise scale while remaining fully governed. IBM’s Client Engineering team led the architecture and system integration, while GBM supported delivery with program coordination and deep familiarity with e&’s existing OpenPages and watsonx Assistant environment. Together, they showcased AI capabilities that move beyond static interactions toward systems that can reason, orchestrate tasks, and support decision workflows.
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“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.”
At the heart of this initiative is watsonx Orchestrate, which enables AI agents to coordinate actions, connect with enterprise platforms, and function under robust governance controls. For e&, this creates a trusted and explainable AI layer that can scale across compliance and, eventually, other enterprise domains. Consequently, the organization can streamline regulatory processes, reduce response times, and provide 24/7 self-service access to critical information.
In addition, the solution aligns seamlessly with watsonx.governance, which e& already uses to manage AI accountability and compliance. By embedding agentic AI directly into the OpenPages governance, risk, and compliance platform, the deployment represents one of the region’s early enterprise-grade implementations of agentic AI demonstrating how intelligent systems can support human-led decision-making while respecting regulatory and operational requirements. The project also highlights IBM’s flexible AI and model-gateway approach, which allows large language models to operate across hybrid environments, including customer-managed infrastructure, without compromising enterprise controls.
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“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.”
Overall, this collaboration marks a pivotal step in e&’s enterprise AI journey. By embedding action-oriented, governed AI into its compliance and risk frameworks, e& is laying a scalable foundation for broader agentic AI adoption while also setting a new regional benchmark for trusted, enterprise-grade artificial intelligence.
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