AI Tech
PR Newswire | October 26, 2023
Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) launched watsonx Code Assistant, a generative AI-powered assistant that helps enterprise developers and IT operators code more quickly and more accurately using natural language prompts. The product currently delivers on two specific enterprise use cases. First, IT Automation with watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed, for tasks such as network configuration and code deployment. Second, mainframe application modernization with watsonx Code Assistant for Z, for translation of COBOL to Java on IBM Z.
Designed to accelerate development while maintaining the principles of trust, security, and compliance, the product leverages generative AI based on IBM's Granite foundation models for code running on IBM's watsonx platform. Granite uses the decoder architecture, which underpins large language model capabilities to predict what is next in a sequence to support natural language processing tasks. IBM is exploring opportunities to tune watsonx Code Assistant with additional domain-specific generative AI capabilities to assist in code generation, code explanation, and the full end-to-end software development lifecycle to continue to drive enterprise application modernization.
According to a recent IDC report, "Because it relies on a model trained on curated data, watsonx Code Assistant can help enterprises improve code quality by propagating best practices through code recommendations, instead of polluting enterprise code bases with code generated by models trained on unvetted repositories."2
With this launch, watsonx Code Assistant joins watsonx Orchestrate and watsonx Assistant in IBM's growing line of watsonx assistants that provide enterprises with tangible ways to implement generative AI, said Kareem Yusuf, Ph.D, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Growth, IBM Software. Watsonx Code Assistant puts AI-assisted code development and application modernization tools directly into the hands of developers – in a naturally integrated way that is designed to be non-disruptive – to help address skills gaps and increase productivity.
Additionally, IBM Consulting brings deep domain expertise across these use cases working closely with clients across industries such as banking, insurance, healthcare and government, to build strategies to allow them to take advantage of the potential of generative AI and code generation to accelerate modernization.
IT Automation - IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed
The Ansible Automation Platform helps enterprise developers and IT operators implement automation, using Ansible Playbooks, for IT tasks including infrastructure management, hybrid cloud deployment, network configuration, application deployment and more. With IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed, platform users can input plain English prompts to automatically generate task recommendations for Ansible Playbooks that adhere to best practices in task creation and maintenance. This way, a greater number of team members can create Ansible Playbooks more efficiently and implement automation engineered to be more resilient and easier to support without in-depth training.
Technical Preview Key Data:
Approximately 4,000 developers participated in the technical preview.
85% overall average acceptance rate of the AI-generated content recommendations. (from July 27 – Oct 23, 2023, based on over 41,000 recommendations)
Productivity improvements in the range of 20-45%.
"Red Hat has already shown what domain-specific AI can do for IT automation at the community level," said Ashesh Badani, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Red Hat. "The release of watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed has the potential to close skills gaps, create greater organizational efficiencies and free enterprise IT to deliver even more business value."
The Hybrid Cloud Platforms team within the IBM CIO Office uses Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to support a wide range of tasks within their IT environment whether it's patching, resolving vulnerabilities, or running regular health checks of their systems. Bob Epstein, Leader of IBM CIO Hybrid Cloud Platforms, expects that the number of developers able to produce Ansible Playbooks with the full release version could increase as much as 10x as watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed empowers other team members such as Site Reliability Engineers who can use natural language to generate Ansible-specific automation tasks.
"I like to look at our modernization journey in these stages: In the past we were crawling, doing a lot of things manually. Then, when we started automating, we were walking. Once we implemented Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, we were running. And as we look ahead, with watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed, I think we will be able to fly," said Robert Barron, Architect, Hybrid Cloud Platforms, IBM CIO Office.
Mainframe Application Modernization – IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z
IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z helps enable faster translation of COBOL to Java on IBM Z and enhances developer productivity on the platform. It is being designed to assist businesses in leveraging generative AI and automated tooling to accelerate their mainframe application modernization – while allowing clients to take advantage of the performance, security and resiliency capabilities of IBM Z.
Today, the product follows the application modernization lifecycle, starting with an application discovery capability, which maps out a technical understanding of the application and its dependencies. Then, an automated refactoring capability leverages the information captured in application discovery to identify selected elements to decompose the monolithic application into modular COBOL business services. Finally, watsonx Code Assistant for Z leverages generative AI to transform individual COBOL business services into object-oriented Java code. The next step in the lifecycle is validation testing. Anticipated in a future release, the product will support automated test case generation to validate the new COBOL or Java services.
TCS and IBM hold a long-term partnership that fosters a collaborative ecosystem to develop joint successes for their customers and stakeholders. Leveraging this partnership and the deep contextual knowledge, TCS has grown a purpose-led, dedicated, full-service practice for in-place application modernization.
"There is a significant need for the developer productivity gains that generative AI can bring to transform applications on the mainframe," said Keshav Varma, ISU Head, Technology, Software and Services Business Unit, TCS. "While watsonx Code Assistant for Z has only just become available, we have several clients that have already requested that we create proofs of concept for them. With decades of enterprise experience from both our companies, we look forward to building on our deep partnership with IBM using watsonx."
IBM Consulting Brings Expertise to Help Clients with IT Automation and Modernization
Early IBM Consulting engagements for both watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed and watsonx Code Assistant for Z aim to provide clients with the ability to deliver continuous automation, Ansible Playbook productivity, quality improvements, and transformation of IT operations – in addition to helping them identify the right application areas to modernize with Z.
For those looking for more personalized use cases with watsonx Code Assistant, IBM Consulting and IBM Client Engineering can work side-by-side with clients to identify specific pain points and solve critical business and technical challenges from the users' perspective. IBM Consulting brings deep industry expertise in application modernization, IT automation and generative AI via dedicated Red Hat and watsonx practices that work closely with IBM Research, IBM Technology and Red Hat.
Statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.
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Software
BMC Software | November 06, 2023
BMC Software's new AIOps capabilities in BMC Helix Operations Management use AI for quick IT issue resolution.
The solution boosts IT operations in hybrid, multi-cloud environments, enhancing visibility and service performance.
New features like service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting expedite incident resolution and risk recovery.
BMC Software, a global leader in IT solutions, announces new AIOps capabilities for its BMC Helix Operations Management solution using the BMC HelixGPT capability. The solution uses advanced AI to find problems' root causes more quickly. It changes the way IT works by adding dynamic service modeling, situation explainability, and deep container auto-detection to better understand containerized environments.
As businesses grapple with complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments and increasing data volume and complexity, the need for advanced AI and machine learning to drive visibility, observability, and optimum business service performance is paramount.
Nancy Gohring, research director for IDC's Enterprise System Management, Observability and AIOps program, emphasized the importance of modernizing IT operations in line with the adoption of hybrid and cloud-native technologies. AIOps capabilities that leverage AI to pinpoint problem causes, guide users to the correct response, and predict potential future issues are key to ensuring service delivery aligns with business outcomes.
The BMC Helix Operations Management solution combines advanced causal AI to identify issue root causes, predictive AI for proactive problem identification and resolution, and generative AI for automating event summaries and best action recommendations for complex problems. These innovations enable IT operations to deliver higher service availability and resilience to businesses, driving efficient operational performance with greater tool silo visibility and superior AI-driven insights for significantly improved problem identification and repair times.
The new BMC Helix Operations Management innovations include out-of-the-box service blueprints, situation explainability powered by causal AI, and AIOps situation fingerprinting powered by AI, GPT, and NLP. These features ensure accurate service models in ever-changing IT environments, swift incident resolution, and faster recovery from service outages and other potential risks.
While the new AIOps capabilities in BMC's Helix Operations Management solution offer a host of benefits, they also present potential challenges. The complexity of AI systems can lead to difficulties in understanding and controlling their operations, which could pose challenges in troubleshooting and rectifying issues. Additionally, the heavy reliance on AI might reduce the level of human oversight in IT operations, which could be risky in certain scenarios. The effectiveness of the solution is also heavily dependent on the quality and quantity of data it receives, which might not always be optimal in real-world scenarios.
On the brighter side, the benefits of this solution are substantial. The use of advanced AI capabilities allows for swift identification and resolution of IT issues, greatly improving operational efficiency. The solution's ability to enhance IT operations in complex hybrid, multi-cloud environments is a significant advantage, as it provides much-needed visibility and service performance. The new features, including out-of-the-box service blueprints, causal AI-powered explainability, and AIOps situation fingerprinting, ensure swift incident resolution and faster recovery from potential risks. These innovations lead to higher service availability and resilience, which are crucial for businesses in today's digital age. Overall, despite some potential challenges, the BMC Helix Operations Management solution's new AIOps capabilities present a promising advancement in the field of IT operations management.
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AI Tech
Business Wire | October 30, 2023
Deloitte and ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) today announced an expansion to their alliance to integrate Now Assist generative AI capabilities with next-generation managed services. The alliance will provide end-to-end managed services and beyond, known in the industry as Operate services, through the combination of Deloitte’s domain and industry experience coupled with ServiceNow’s generative AI-enabled enterprise platform. Deloitte will also pioneer the use of ServiceNow’s platform to scale their client Operate services globally.
In today's challenging market conditions, many organizations often face inefficiencies and loss of productivity due to siloed operations across enterprise functions, such as finance, HR, IT, supply chain and procurement. This lack of agility is causing many organizations to rethink how they can boost efficiencies across their businesses through evolving generative AI technology to gain a competitive advantage. Generative AI is number one on the list of C-suite emerging technology investment priorities over the next twelve months, and in the next 3 to 5 years, revenue growth is the top long-term business outcome executives are looking to achieve with generative AI initiatives, according to IDC.
With generative AI at the heart of our expanded alliance, Deloitte and ServiceNow are positioned to help organizations realize their business transformation agendas through end-to-end Operate solutions, said Joe Ucuzoglu, Deloitte Global CEO. Leading organizations are seeking industry-tailored technology solutions to accelerate the time to value, which is exactly what our expanded alliance will deliver.
“Deloitte’s commitment to enhance their service offerings with ServiceNow’s Now Assist generative AI capabilities demonstrates its market-leading innovation on behalf of customers around the world,” said ServiceNow Chairman and CEO Bill McDermott. “This kind of co-development creates a fly-wheel effect for businesses – more use cases drive more workflow automation. Together, ServiceNow and Deloitte can deliver superior digital transformation to help customers in every industry improve their business.”
Deloitte’s Operate services are focused on helping customers manage their organizations’ ongoing operational and technology needs through strategically enhancing technology applications, cloud, and infrastructure, while also delivering ongoing advisory, data, and analytics services to help exceed customers’ business transformation agendas.
OperateEdge, Deloitte’s proprietary Operate management and delivery platform, combines data, tools and knowledge driven by Deloitte’s methodologies, industry standards, and leading AI practices. Industries and business areas will see a dramatic change in outcomes via Deloitte’s industry experience—and by using ServiceNow as the platform to scale client Operate services globally. Examples include:
Incident management allows for greatly improved productivity and experience through faster resolutions. The overall workload across the service delivery spectrum can improve efficiency by 20 to 30 percent.
Customer Service Management can streamline the customer engagement process from beginning to end by rapidly generating summaries from cases and chats, reducing the overall manual work for agents.
HR Service Delivery can enable generative AI capabilities for Case and Knowledge Management to boost agent productivity and deliver faster case resolution for employees, improving overall experience.
Through Deloitte’s industry experience—and by using ServiceNow as the platform to scale client Operate services across the globe—the companies also plan on delivering transformation across industries and business areas. Examples include:
Supply Chain: Can enable organizations to achieve sustained value across the supply chain and manufacturing functions, by operating client’s supply chain end-to-end, and leveraging AI-enabled assets to deliver value in quality, cycle times, asset efficiency and overall cost optimization.
Financial Services: Deliver leading operations and technology capabilities, specialized talent, and advanced technologies to streamline, automate and operate multiple functions, by managing assets across the spectrum of specialists and technology solutions to accelerate the organization’s transformation goals.
Life Sciences and Healthcare: Manage, run, reimagine, and transform core healthcare processes such as clinical operations, patient/clinician engagement, supply chain and administrative cost management, using analytics and AI-driven operations for patients, members, and clinicians to have a differentiated experience.
Sustainability: Manage, visualize, report and mitigate on sustainability initiatives, policies, and compliance, by leveraging data and generative AI to unlock valuable insights that propel sustainable logistics, reduce carbon emissions, and drive progress towards an organization’s sustainability and climate goals.
According to Deloitte Consulting’s latest Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey, 67% of executives indicate a budget increase for Operate services. In addition, Deloitte’s recent thought leadership with Harvard Business Review showcases how bringing in outside experience for core functions is changing the shape of business. Key benefits include replacing traditional outsourced service projects that focus on simple task completion and cost reduction with outcome-oriented engagements that allow organizations to operate with greater agility.
Deloitte is also infusing generative AI applications and capabilities across its organization to help its professionals become more efficient and productive. As part of this ongoing commitment, Deloitte is rolling out purpose-specific Large Language Models (LLMs) to support specialized teams across its business, building on Deloitte’s proprietary and deep knowledge of industries and domains, enriched with other data and insights. Additionally, Deloitte is increasing AI fluency, training more than 120,000 professionals as part of the next generation of AI talent via the Deloitte AI Academy™, as well as investing more than $2 billion in global technology learning and development initiatives through the Deloitte Technology Academy program, to boost skills in AI as well as other key industries and functional areas.
‘’This is an exciting step in our combined Deloitte and ServiceNow AI journey where we are continuing to bring together leading, unique industry assets and services that help address complex challenges that clients need to overcome, with a dedicated ServiceNow Assets & Solutions group (ASG) of professionals, unlocking more value from their investments with speed, scale and insight,’’ said Asish Ramchandran, Deloitte’s Chief Commercial Officer for the ServiceNow alliance.
Deloitte and ServiceNow are building on an eleven-year alliance. Most recently, Deloitte launched a dedicated ServiceNow Assets & Solutions Group (ASG), a team built to harness the power of the ServiceNow platform to deliver industry-specific outcomes for customers. Additionally, Deloitte has been presented with several ServiceNow awards in 2023, including: Americas Service Provider Partner of the Year, Worldwide Manufacturing Industry Partner of the Year, Worldwide Built with ServiceNow Offering Partner of the Year, Worldwide Employee Workflow Partner of the Year, APJ Customer Workflow Partner of the Year, and EMEA Transformation Partner of the Year.
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