Lumen Technologies and IBM are partnering to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions at the edge—integrating watsonx, IBM's portfolio of AI products, with Lumen's Edge Cloud infrastructure and network.
Together, Lumen and IBM aim to bring powerful, real-time AI inferencing closer to where data is generated, helping companies overcome cost, latency, and security barriers as they scale AI adoption and enhance customer experiences, according to the companies.
Lumen delivers low-latency, high through-put infrastructure that serves as the backbone of the emerging AI economy.
The new AI inferencing solutions optimized for the edge will deploy IBM watsonx technology in Lumen's edge data centers and leverage Lumen's multi-cloud architecture, enabling clients across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail to analyze massive volumes of data in near real-time to help minimize latency.
This will allow enterprises to develop and deploy AI models closer to the point of data generation, facilitating smarter decision-making while maintaining data control and security, plus accelerating AI innovation, the companies said.
"Enterprise leaders don't just want to explore AI, they need to scale it quickly, cost effectively and securely," said Ryan Asdourian, chief marketing and strategy officer at Lumen. "By combining IBM's AI innovation with Lumen's powerful network edge, we're turning vision into action—making it easier for businesses to tap into real-time intelligence wherever their data lives, accelerate innovation, and deliver smarter, faster customer experiences."
IBM Consulting will act as the preferred systems integrator, supporting clients in their efforts to scale deployments, reduce their costs, and fully leverage AI capabilities through their deep technology, domain, and industry expertise.
"Our work with Lumen underscores a strong commitment to meeting clients where they are —bringing the power of enterprise-grade AI and hybrid cloud to wherever data lives," said Adam Lawrence, general manager, Americas Technology, IBM. "Together, we're helping clients accelerate their AI journeys with greater speed, flexibility and security, driving new use cases at the edge ranging from automated customer service to predictive maintenance and intelligent supply chains."
"This collaboration can help redefine what's possible with AI at the edge," added Asdourian. "We're pursuing solutions that will give enterprises the ability to bring AI to their data, rather than the other way around—while maintaining control, compliance posture and real-time performance."
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