IBM, TD-Synnex target AI with new development center for LatAm

IBM and IT distributor and services integrator TD-Synnex launched a center for the co-development of solutions aimed at Latin American enterprises and with a major focus on AI projects.

Located at IBM’s São Paulo headquarters, the so-called center of excellence (CoE) will operate integrated remote hubs and centers maintained by both companies around the world to serve clients and channel partners.

The companies’ goal is primarily to develop projects with clients from Mexico to Argentina in the areas of data, automation and security, while expanding the network of channels that work with the corporate sector in Latin America, executives said during the center's launch on Thursday.

The areas of expertise to be covered include software, storage and solutions from Red Hat, IBM's subsidiary focused on hybrid cloud and data orchestration.

“With the advent of generative AI and the advancement of the hybrid cloud, the market has grown significantly. IBM and TD traditionally serve large companies, but we’re also making inroads in companies of other sizes,” Tonny Martins, president of IBM in Latin America, told a press conference.

Martins sees a lot of frenzy and said it is key to identify concrete use cases for AI, moving away from the hype surrounding generative AI.

A little over a year ago, IBM launched WatsonX, the version of its traditional Watson machine learning platform that adds genAI large language models (LLM).

In a call with investors last month, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company's book of business for generative AI has grown to more than US$2bn since the launch of WatsonX.

Martins does not talk numbers on a regional basis. He did, however, hint at several hundred use cases – unique implementations – underway with clients throughout the region. Worldwide, he said IBM has over 40,000 AI cases in implementation. 

Alvaro Andrade, TD-Synnex’s director for IBM product distribution in Latin America, mentioned the joint development of AI solutions for the mining sector in Chile.

TD-Synnex’s LatAm president Otavio Lazarini said the CoE leverages a long-term partnership between his company, which is one of the largest distributors in Latin America, and IBM.

IBM posted Q2 global revenues of U$15.8bn, up 2% year-over-year, with software revenue up 7%.