e& and IBM unveil enterprise-grade agentic AI to transform governance

20/01/2026 04:49 AST

Global technology group e& and IBM today announced a strategic collaboration to advance towards an enterprise-grade agentic AI foundation at e&, starting with policy, risk, and compliance.

Unveiled at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the initiative reflects e&'s move beyond traditional natural language processing (NLP)-based chatbots toward governed, action-oriented AI embedded in core enterprise systems.

e& and IBM have introduced an agentic AI solution built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate - a product offering more than 500 tools and customisable, domain-specific agents from IBM and its partners - to help employees and auditors quickly access and interpret legal, regulatory, and compliance information.

Integrated with IBM OpenPages and the broader watsonx portfolio, the solution delivers clear, traceable responses aligned with enterprise governance requirements.

A joint proof of concept delivered by IBM, GBM (Gulf Business Machines) and e& within eight weeks demonstrated how agentic AI can operate at enterprise scale under real-world conditions.

IBM's Client Engineering team led the design and integration of the agentic AI solution, with GBM supporting delivery through project coordination and deep familiarity with e&'s OpenPages and watsonx Assistant environment. The work showcased AI capabilities that move beyond traditional question-and-answer tools, enabling reasoning and action while remaining aligned with e&'s governance, risk, and compliance framework.

"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."

IBM watsonx Orchestrate enables agentic AI that goes beyond chat-based interactions, allowing AI agents to reason, orchestrate tasks, and integrate with enterprise systems under governance controls. For e&, it provides a foundation for trusted, explainable AI that can scale across compliance and other enterprise domains. It helps to streamline compliance tasks, reduce response times, and enables 24/7 self-service access across the organization.

The initiative also aligns natively with watsonx.governance, already in use at e&, providing a strong foundation for AI governance, explainability, and compliance by design. By embedding agentic AI directly into the OpenPages governance, risk, and compliance platform, this represents one of the early enterprise-grade agentic AI implementations in the region, demonstrating how AI can support trusted, human-led decision-making under regulatory and operational requirements.

The deployment also demonstrates the flexibility of IBM's AI and model gateway approach, enabling large language models to run across hybrid environments, including customer-managed infrastructure, while remaining governed under enterprise controls.

"As organisations 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 collaboration marks an important milestone in e&'s enterprise AI journey, establishing a scalable and governed foundation for agentic AI adoption across the organization. By embedding action-oriented AI directly into core governance and compliance workflows, e& is reinforcing its commitment to responsible innovation and setting a new benchmark for trusted, enterprise-grade agentic AI in the region, the company said.

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