IBM Launches Automation Innovation Centre in Kochi

IBM today announced the launch of a new Automation Innovation Centre, which will be housed within the IBM India Software Lab in Kochi, located at Brigade World Trade Centre Info Park, Kakkanad. The new centre, which will be fully operational in Q3 2022, will allow IBM and IBM Ecosystem partners to build automation solutions through their lifecycle – product design, engineering, and support — that will help clients in the areas of business automation, AIOps and integration. At the new centre, IBM will work in tandem with clients and partners to co-create in order to foster innovation by bringing an outside-in view for designing new products at speed while enhancing customer experience. IBM is also in the process of bringing this innovation centre together by acquiring local talent to strengthen its growth journey in the region.

Today, businesses are looking for best-in-class solutions for their digital transformation journeys, including AI-powered automation to improve their IT and business processes. According to the recently conducted Global AI Adoption Index 2022 by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, more than half of IT professionals in India report their company is currently using or considering automation software or tools to drive greater efficiencies in IT operations (52%) and business processes/tasks (53%) and to give valuable time back to employees (55%).

In line with business demands and in efforts to capitalize on this opportunity, IBM is furthering its collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro. As part of this engagement, the engineering teams of TCS and Wipro will co-locate with IBM India Software Lab in Kochi to co-create and co-innovate solutions in AI-powered automation.

“India is an innovation and talent hub for IBM, and our collaborations with IIIT Kottayam, TCS, and Wipro will help us accelerate the adoption of automation for businesses across industries,” said Dinesh Nirmal, General Manager, IBM Automation. “IBM is already helping thousands of clients and partners use automation solutions to make IT and business processes more efficient and employees more effective, and the work from our Kochi lab will help us continue to build powerful AI-powered automation solutions for businesses in India and globally. The collaborations will also provide youths beyond metros access to jobs, exposure to the latest in automation technology, and skilling opportunities to be job-ready.”

Working together with Wipro, the teams will co-engineer extensions and kits for developers and partners to create using IBM Automation solutions via low-code/no-code methods. Working with TCS, the teams will engineer extensions for the IBM AI-powered automation portfolio to address and map to industry-specific and domain use cases. The unique co-location collaborations will bring deeper levels of cohesion between the IBM Automation Innovation Centre, TCS, and Wipro engineering teams and help bring enhancements and integration to the market faster and deliver customized solutions to clients in various sectors to meet their unique demands.

IBM and Indian Institute of Information Technology Kottayam Collaborate to Address Skills Gap

According to 38% of IT professionals in India at organizations exploring or deploying AI, the greatest barrier to successful AI adoption is limited AI skills, expertise, or knowledge. To help address this gap in skills, IBM is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Kottayam to work together on skill and curriculum enhancement, as well as equip students with the right skills that will enable them to be competitive in the technology job market.

IBM will provide the faculty and students of IIIT Kottayam with educational resources, tutorials, select IBM software, industry-relevant curated courseware content, access to cloud for hands-on experience, and other resources. IBM will also assign mentors who will work closely with faculty and students to co-author research papers and contribute to community-driven content on innovative technology areas, like business automation.