DUBAI
Mon, 19 Jan 2026
Global technology group e& and IBM have announced a strategic collaboration to build an enterprise-grade agentic AI foundation at e&, beginning with policy, risk, and compliance functions.
Unveiled at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, the initiative signals e&’s shift beyond traditional NLP-based chatbots toward governed, action-oriented AI embedded directly into core enterprise systems.
The partners have introduced an agentic AI solution built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate, which offers more than 500 tools and customizable, domain-specific agents from IBM and its ecosystem. The solution enables employees and auditors to quickly access, interpret, and act on legal, regulatory, and compliance information.
Integrated with IBM OpenPages and the broader watsonx portfolio, the platform delivers clear, traceable responses aligned with enterprise governance requirements.
A joint proof of concept delivered by IBM, Gulf Business Machines (GBM), 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 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 go beyond 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 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, streamlining tasks, reducing response times, and enabling 24/7 self-service across the organization.
The initiative aligns natively with watsonx.governance, already in use at e&, strengthening 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 region’s earliest enterprise-grade agentic AI implementations.
The deployment also demonstrates IBM’s 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.”
The collaboration marks a milestone in e&’s enterprise AI journey, establishing a scalable and governed foundation for agentic AI adoption across the organization and setting a new regional benchmark for trusted, enterprise-grade AI.
