IBM and OpenAI have announced a strategic partnership to bring OpenAI's models and tools to enterprise customers at scale, opening a new front in the intensifying battle for corporate AI spending.

Under the deal — announced Thursday, with terms undisclosed — IBM will establish a dedicated OpenAI practice within IBM Consulting and train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI technologies over the coming months, primarily by retraining existing employees.

"We will train and certify tens of thousands of consultants on OpenAI's technologies over the next several months," Mike Healy, managing partner at IBM Consulting, told TechCrunch.

The training will cover OpenAI's Codex coding tools, its API, cybersecurity offerings and consultative credentials, and IBM will build a group of specialized "Forward Deployed Experts" through OpenAI's Partner Network.

IBM will also integrate OpenAI's latest models — GPT-5.6, Codex and ChatGPT Work — into IBM Consulting Advantage, its AI platform for consultants, helping clients deploy AI across core business operations. The two companies will jointly market the offerings and develop industry-specific solutions for financial services, government, telecommunications and retail.

The partnership is the latest move in OpenAI's strategy of working through global systems integrators — it has previously struck similar arrangements with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services — as the competitive frontier shifts from building better models to winning enterprise deployments.

For IBM, the agreement extends its model-agnostic approach, pairing its own Granite family of models with third-party frontier offerings through its watsonx platform and consulting business. It also comes as IBM looks to accelerate its AI growth after lowering its 2026 revenue forecast last month.

The new deal deepens an existing relationship: in June, IBM and OpenAI partnered on the Daybreak Cyber Partner Program, and OpenAI's models will now be integrated with IBM Autonomous Security, IBM's multi-agent cybersecurity service. Less than a year ago, IBM announced a similar alliance with Anthropic — a sign that enterprises increasingly want access to every frontier model, not just one.

Sources