It Takes an AI Village

No one company can achieve success alone. This has proven to be an undeniable fact. Many industries often have had to painfully learn that it takes collaboration and collective participation. To achieve great innovation, it truly takes a village. Partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems, all working in tandem, are essential to ensuring long-term success of any technology implementation. We are all beginning to witness this unfold repeatedly, especially with the rise of gen AI (artificial intelligence).

In research conducted, Gartner finds 59% of CEOs and senior business executives acknowledge AI as the new technology that will impact their industry most in the next three years. At the same time, research shows the value of AI is amplified through partnerships.

Consider this: Only 34% of chief experience officers who meet with IT only once per quarter, realize their digital investments. Conversely, 73% of chief experience officers who foster co-leadership and embrace partnerships successfully achieve their digital objectives. That is a stark contrast and illustrates the critical role and even emphasizes the importance of collaboration to reach technological objectives.

This idea of innovation being supported by collaboration is illustrated in a lot of research. We see Harvard Business Review suggest 94% of tech industry executives consider innovation partnerships a necessary strategy.

Government data also confirms partnerships are on the rise too. Looking at the most recent numbers published from the IRS, we see the number of partnerships increased 11.8% for 2020 and partnerships with fewer than three partners made up more than half of all partnerships. Of course, this data represents partnerships across all industries.

But the same is true in the technology community itself. As technology companies continue to come together to deliver solutions, it will lead to more innovation among businesses.

We have observed this with IBM Consulting and Microsoft. The two companies have worked together for years and four years ago deepened their partnership, right at about the same time generative AI exploded into the world very quickly. Together the companies are buckling down with a greater focus on integrating AI into business.

“We now base everything we do on a platform that has been built for IBM Consulting called Consulting Advantage,” says Chris McGuire, VP and general manager, Global Microsoft Strategic Partnership, IBM. “In that platform, we use Copilot and the Microsoft stack to get solutions faster for clients.”

Lisa Slim, senior director, global partners, Microsoft, adds there are five pillars for partners delivering on Microsoft priorities, including:

1. Copilots on every device across every role.
2. AI wins with every customer.
3. Securing a cyber foundation for every customer.
4. Microsoft 365 core execution
5. Migrations

“IBM across all of those pillars is enabled, skilled, and ready to execute,” says Slim.

Consider this partnership as an example. Two years ago, coinciding with Microsoft’s launch of Copilot and its AI platforms and stacks, IBM Consulting decided it was going to take its Microsoft practice and a couple of really strong acquisitions IBM did in the marketplace— BoxBoat and Neudesic—and put them together with Microsoft and bring clients to the table to see what kind of innovation they could drive by having a hackathon on Microsoft’s platform.

In the first year, they admit they had a large participation and interesting wins that turned into commercialization across clients. In the second year, they amped it up and more than doubled the participation of both clients and internal participants. Toyota came through as the winner.

“It has driven our teams to understand the benefit they gain from going out and earning their certifications in the Microsoft suite on AI,” says McGuire.

But it is the numbers McGuire shares about partnerships that offer a truly revealing perspective into the overall value of partnerships.

Roughly four years ago, IBM Consulting began counting its successes and it found 11% of its signing for the year were through and with strategic partners. Fast forward, and the following year it was 32%. Fast forward yet another year and it was at 49%. Now, it is headed to 80%.

The numbers frankly speak for themselves. Partnerships, collaboration, ecosystems, you get the point. Working together is key to ensuring successful innovation across all industries.

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