Kyndryl announces AI consultation service for businesses, wider Microsoft collaboration

Kyndryl has announced a new collaboration with Microsoft to help businesses adopt enterprise-grade generative artificial intelligence (AI) through the Microsoft Cloud.

The IT infrastructure services firm will launch a new AI-readiness program on Kyndryl Consult, through which customers can explore how they can benefit from generative AI.

Through the AI-readiness program, Kyndryl will help customers build an end-to-end data foundation for AI, improving the reliability and quality of their data architecture, and will work with customers to design and deploy the best frameworks for data value and insights.

Kyndryl and Microsoft will provide customers with an overview of the best use cases and ways to deploy AI in their enterprises via their joint innovation centers as well as the co-creation platform Kyndryl Vital.

This will feed into collaboration on innovations in the generative AI space, with Kyndryl set to develop AI models specific to certain industries based on its years in IT management.

Microsoft will lean into its already substantial AI portfolio and cloud ecosystem, which includes services such as Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Fabric, and 365 Copilot.

Kyndryl has internally adopted its own virtual assistant to summarize problems and boost the rate of response, and will build on this experience to help its worldwide customer base adopt automation for efficiency gains.

It cited its experience with AI technologies, already integrated throughout its productivity tools and open integration platform Kyndryl Bridge, as a basis for its ability to give customers insightful advice on AI adoption.

The firms also announced that through Kyndryl University for Microsoft, employees at Kyndryl will receive education on Microsoft’s AI product offering and cloud tools. This will help the workforce to provide more product-specific training and advice for Kyndryl customers.

“Kyndryl is creating a trusted environment for organizations to explore the benefits and value it can bring to organizations as they look to drive efficiencies, grow and deliver greater business outcomes,” said Stephen Leonard, Global Alliances and Partnerships Leader at Kyndryl. 

“With over three decades of experience in delivering data services, advanced security capabilities, and managing complex IT environments, we are well-positioned to work alongside Microsoft to help organizations confidently apply generative AI at scale and positively impact their businesses while being mindful of known risks.” 

Kyndryl partnered with Microsoft in November 2021, the first such partnership after it split from IBM. Since then, the two firms have collaborated on digital transformation and innovations in AI in the workplace.

“Together with Kyndryl, we have a shared vision to responsibly enable our customers to jointly explore, design and deploy generative AI solutions across their enterprises, and to do it in a way that enables them to realize business value,” said Stephen Boyle, GM Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft. 

“As a leader in the delivery of generative AI and data platforms, we believe partners such as Kyndryl are critical to the successful use of emerging technologies for business.”