At this year’s IBM Think, Chief Executive Arvind Krishna’s keynote focused on artificial intelligence’s impact on the modern enterprise. Instead of the usual tour through features and roadmaps, his talk challenged information technology leaders. The real divide in the next decade won’t be between those who do and don’t use AI, but between those who rebuild their operating models around AI and those who stay stuck in pilots and proofs of concept.
As IBM Corp.‘s client and partner event, Think 2025, wrapped up last week in Boston, to no one’s surprise the primary theme of the event to no one’s surprise was artificial intelligence — but there were several other related topics, such as quantum and hybrid cloud. I thought the keynotes and Q&A with IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna were excellent as he provided his vision for those areas, which were differentiated from what I’ve heard before.
Last week I was at the industry event, RSAC and this week I’m at IBM Think, a vendor event and this got me thinking about the difference between the two types of conferences and how much they’ve changed over the years. Flashback to 15 years ago: If you wanted to experience a blockbuster tech event, you were probably booking your ticket to something like Networld + Interop.
IBM Corp.‘s annual Think event in Boston showed how the company has had a complete facelift in the era of Chief Executive Arvind Krishna. Krishna (pictured) has used the boom in artificial intelligence to reposition the company around Watson and make that the focal point of IBM’s next platform. I left Think 2024 more positive about IBM than I have been in a long time, primarily because the company isn’t just talking about transformation; it’s doing it.