e& and IBM Launch “Agentic AI” at Davos to Revolutionize Corporate Governance
The announcement follows a successful eight-week proof of concept delivered by IBM, e&, and Gulf Business Machines (GBM).
RMN Digital Corporate Desk
New Delhi | January 19, 2026
DAVOS, Switzerland – In a major move to redefine corporate operations, the global technology group e& and IBM announced a strategic collaboration at the World Economic Forum to deploy enterprise-grade agentic AI. This initiative marks a transition for e& from traditional natural language processing (NLP) chatbots toward a governed, action-oriented AI foundation designed to transform policy, risk, and compliance.
Beyond the Chatbot: A New Era of Action
Unlike standard AI tools that primarily answer questions, the new agentic AI solution—built on IBM watsonx Orchestrate—is capable of reasoning, orchestrating tasks, and integrating directly with core enterprise systems. The platform offers more than 500 tools and customizable, domain-specific agents that allow employees and auditors to quickly interpret complex legal and regulatory information.
“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 of e&. Dowidar noted that embedding intelligence into risk and compliance processes will enable faster decision-making and consistent policy interpretation.
Rapid Development and Scalability
The announcement follows a successful eight-week proof of concept delivered by IBM, e&, and Gulf Business Machines (GBM). This pilot demonstrated that agentic AI can operate effectively under real-world conditions at an enterprise scale while remaining strictly aligned with e&’s existing governance framework.
The deployment is one of the first of its kind in the region, utilizing a hybrid cloud approach. This allows large language models to run across various environments, including customer-managed infrastructure, while remaining under strict enterprise controls.
Governance by Design
A central component of the collaboration is the integration with watsonx.governance and the IBM OpenPages platform. This ensures that all AI-driven outcomes are clear, traceable, and explainable, providing 24/7 self-service access to compliance information across the organization.
Ana Paula Assis, IBM’s SVP and Chair for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, emphasized the importance of this framework: “As organizations move from experimenting with AI to embedding it into the fabric of how they operate, governance and accountability become just as important as intelligence”.
Setting a New Benchmark
For e&, a powerhouse that reported a consolidated revenue of AED 59.2 billion in 2024, this move reinforces its evolution from a telecom pioneer into a global technology leader. By embedding action-oriented AI into its core workflows, the group is setting a new regional benchmark for responsible innovation and digital empowerment.
