IBM and Microsoft Launch 'Imagine Enterprise' AI Agent Platform for Regulated Industries
IBM and Microsoft announced Imagine Enterprise, a joint AI agent platform combining IBM's 6,000+ pre-built agents with Microsoft's cloud security infrastructure to accelerate governed AI deployment in finance, insurance, and retail.
US tech giants IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) jointly announced on November 10, 2026, the launch of a new AI agent platform named "Imagine Enterprise." The platform is designed to help enterprises build, run, and govern AI agents for executing industry-specific processes, with a particular focus on regulated sectors such as financial services, insurance, and retail.
According to the joint press release, IBM Consulting contributes more than 6,000 pre-built AI agents and assets, along with delivery experience from its IBM Consulting Advantage platform. Microsoft provides the underlying AI, data, cloud, and security technologies. Forward-deployed engineers from both companies will support qualifying customers in moving from experimentation to production.
The platform's core advantages are described as instant expertise (leveraging pre-built agents), fitting the enterprise (connecting to existing data and systems), and acting as an intelligence multiplier (integrating enterprise knowledge). Specific technical components include Microsoft Foundry, GitHub Copilot, Copilot Studio, Fabric, Entra, Purview, Defender, and Azure, alongside IBM's Process Studio, Context Studio, and Advantage Core.
Financial services firm SEI (NASDAQ: SEIC) was cited as an early adopter. Sneha Shah, Chief AI Strategist at SEI, stated that the collaboration aims to explore how emerging capabilities can support critical business processes and scale responsibly. Mohamad Ali, Senior Vice President at IBM Consulting, noted that clients are no longer just looking for faster productivity but want to build an "agentic business."
Imagine Enterprise initially targets financial services, insurance, and retail, with plans to expand into manufacturing, energy, public sector, and mobility. Clients can engage IBM Consulting to deploy and operate the platform or choose self-management options.