Enterprises are moving into a new phase of digital transformation. This phase focuses on deploying Agentic AI across their core business operations. Many organizations find it challenging to transition from isolated pilot projects to full production deployments. They struggle particularly with aligning AI to their specific business needs, governance standards, and existing infrastructure. At AWS re:Invent 2025, IBM and AWS announced a set of joint capabilities to help enterprises design, deploy, and manage AI agents more quickly and efficiently.
By combining IBM’s AI platforms and consulting expertise with AWS’s cloud services, the partnership enables enterprises to scale Agentic AI across regions, industries, and regulatory environments. The joint solutions are already in use across sectors such as government, utilities, financial services, and automotive. In these areas, Agentic AI automates workflows, improves decision support, and streamlines operations.
From Development to Deployment with Flexibility and Choice
The partnership between IBM and AWS goes beyond simply listing IBM software on AWS. The two companies collaborate across the AI stack to deliver hybrid cloud, AI, data, and automation solutions that integrate with existing environments while preserving prior technology investments.
A primary focus is on integrating IBM watsonx Orchestrate with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. This integration brings together Amazon Bedrock foundation models and AgentCore Memory and Observability modules into watsonx Orchestrate. Enterprises can now build, test, deploy, and manage AI agents that maintain conversational context across interactions. This continuity is crucial for maintaining high employee productivity and delivering consistent customer experiences. The combined system improves traceability and monitoring while allowing organizations to standardize on enterprise-grade models and orchestration policies.
IBM Project Bob
IBM is also introducing IBM Bob, an AI-driven integrated development environment designed to support enterprise software development and modernization. Bob offers advanced task generation for code refactoring, documentation, testing, and transformation projects. It has built-in integration with IBM Guardium AI Security or Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS to embed security controls into development workflows, promoting secure-by-design practices. Bob manages workflows across multiple large language models, including Anthropic Claude through Amazon Bedrock. This allows teams to select and direct tasks to the most appropriate models for specific cases.
To manage the growing complexity of Agentic AI ecosystems, IBM has created ContextForge, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) gateway and registry hosted on AWS infrastructure. ContextForge uses AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon S3, and Amazon DynamoDB to help clients build, deploy, monitor, secure, and validate AI agents at scale. As an MCP gateway, it serves as a central hub for enterprises to discover, register, and govern curated agentic components and resources. This makes it easier to bridge rapid AI experimentation with the governance, security, risk management, and observability teams need.
Modernizing Applications
Modernizing applications remains a top priority. A new agentic framework for application migration and modernization, powered by IBM Consulting Advantage, combines IBM assets and Agentic AI-driven automation with AWS-native tools. This framework aims to accelerate time-to-value, reduce transformation risk, and improve cost efficiency as clients migrate and refine enterprise applications on AWS. By incorporating AI agents into assessment, design, migration, and testing workflows, organizations can standardize best practices and reduce manual effort across large portfolios.
In the public sector, IBM has gained FedRAMP authorization for 11 software solutions now deployed on AWS GovCloud. This investment provides federal agencies with access to IBM’s advanced technologies while meeting U.S. federal hosting, security, and compliance standards. Agencies can now leverage AI, data, and automation capabilities that comply with FedRAMP, enabling them to use modern tools without custom hosting or compromising compliance.
Scaling AI with Technology, Expertise, and Co-innovation
IBM and AWS are also expanding their joint marketing efforts to help enterprises adopt modern technologies with confidence across AI, hybrid cloud, and security. IBM’s presence in markets like the Middle East, Japan, and India is increasing through the AWS Marketplace, which now features 15 IBM Consulting Agentic AI solutions. These solutions make it easier for customers to access IBM expertise and prebuilt patterns through a familiar purchasing channel, reducing friction in sourcing, deployment, and management.
For customers on SAP transformation journeys, IBM and AWS have signed a new Strategic Collaboration Agreement to speed up SAP S/4HANA modernization on AWS. The collaboration focuses on developing Agentic AI solutions that enhance decision-making and automate core SAP processes. By incorporating AI agents into SAP-focused workflows, enterprises can streamline routine tasks, improve data consistency, and boost productivity in finance, supply chain, and other key functions.
Autonomous Security for Cloud
Security and resilience are essential as organizations advance into Agentic AI. IBM’s Autonomous Security for Cloud, built on Amazon Bedrock, helps enterprises plan for a quantum-safe transition. This solution aims to protect critical data and ensure compliance with emerging post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards. It uses AI-driven automation to assess cryptographic vulnerabilities, recommend remediation strategies, and coordinate updates at scale.
IBM is also investing in cybersecurity skills development through IBM Cyber Campus, hosted on AWS. Cyber Campus provides educational institutions with an immersive cyber range environment that includes hands-on curriculum and interactive training. In this setting, students can experience realistic scenarios that simulate complex security operations and incident response. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Dr. Gregory Moody, Lee Professor of Information Systems and Director of Cybersecurity Programs, noted that collaboration with IBM allows the university to integrate advanced, practical cybersecurity technologies into its programs. This approach will enable students to develop skills needed to thrive in modern, connected business environments.
Deep Expertise in AWS and Agentic AI
Supporting these initiatives is IBM’s broad expertise in AWS technologies and practices. IBM now holds 32 AWS competencies, including Generative AI and Data & Analytics, along with over 25,000 active AWS certifications among its consultants. This level of specialization helps ensure consistent quality across complex, multi-cloud, and hybrid environments.
IBM is also an AWS launch partner for the new Agentic AI Specialization under the AWS AI Competency. In this role, IBM works with clients to design and deploy autonomous AI systems using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Agents and other compatible AWS frameworks. The specialization formalizes IBM’s position as a strategic partner for enterprises looking to standardize on Agentic AI architectures across various use cases, business units, and regions.
Advancing Agentic AI from Pilots to Enterprise-Wide Adoption
IBM and AWS are positioning their joint portfolio to help organizations move past proof-of-concept projects and scale Agentic AI throughout the enterprise. By integrating orchestration, governance, security, modernization tools, and skills development, the partnership aims to lower the operational and compliance challenges typically faced during AI expansion.
For enterprises interested in operationalizing Agentic AI on AWS, the combined IBM and AWS stack offers a range of technologies, industry solutions, and consulting expertise aligned with real-world deployment practices. More information about the joint initiatives and offerings is available at www.ibm.com/aws.
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