Lumen and IBM Collaborate to Unlock Scalable AI for Businesses

Lumen Technologies (LUMN) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) (IBM) today announced a new collaboration to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions at the edge—integrating watsonx, IBM’s portfolio of AI products, with Lumen’s Edge Cloud infrastructure and network. Together, Lumen and IBM aim to bring powerful, real-time AI inferencing closer to where data is generated, helping companies overcome cost, latency, and security barriers as they scale AI adoption and enhance customer experiences.

Lumen delivers low-latency, high through-put infrastructure that serves as the backbone of the emerging AI economy. The new AI inferencing solutions optimized for the edge will deploy IBM watsonx technology in Lumen’s edge data centers and leverage Lumen’s multi-cloud architecture, enabling clients across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and retail to analyze massive volumes of data in near real-time to help minimize latency. This will allow enterprises to develop and deploy AI models closer to the point of data generation, facilitating smarter decision-making while maintaining data control and security, plus accelerating AI innovation.

"Enterprise leaders don’t just want to explore AI, they need to scale it quickly, cost effectively and securely," said Ryan Asdourian, Chief Marketing and Strategy officer at Lumen. "By combining IBM’s AI innovation with Lumen’s powerful network edge, we’re turning vision into action—making it easier for businesses to tap into real-time intelligence wherever their data lives, accelerate innovation, and deliver smarter, faster customer experiences."

Unlocking the Power of GenAI at the Edge

Lumen’s edge network offers <5ms latency and direct connectivity to major cloud providers and enterprise locations. When paired with IBM watsonx, the infrastructure has the potential to enable real-time AI processing, which can help mitigate costs and risks associated with public cloud dependence.

IBM Consulting will act as the preferred systems integrator, supporting clients in their efforts to scale deployments, reduce their costs and fully leverage AI capabilities through their deep technology, domain, and industry expertise.

"Our work with Lumen underscores a strong commitment to meeting clients where they are —bringing the power of enterprise-grade AI and hybrid cloud to wherever data lives," said Adam Lawrence, General Manager, Americas Technology, IBM. "Together, we’re helping clients accelerate their AI journeys with greater speed, flexibility and security, driving new use cases at the edge ranging from automated customer service to predictive maintenance and intelligent supply chains."

AI in Action: Real-World Use Cases

The collaboration aims to solve contemporary business challenges by turning AI potential into practical, high-impact outcomes at the edge. For enterprise businesses, this can mean faster insights, lower operational costs, and a smarter path to digital innovation.

Lumen and IBM will offer these solutions to joint clients, enabling them to pilot real-world use cases in industries such as manufacturing, retail, logistics and financial services. For example, IBM and Lumen are helping a leading retailer transform its customer service by enhancing customer data and inventory systems with AI-driven digital assistants and visual inspection tools. Once fully developed, this is anticipated to deliver seamless, personalized interactions, creating a faster, smarter, and more engaging shopping experience for consumers.

"This collaboration can help redefine what’s possible with AI at the edge," added Asdourian. "We’re pursuing solutions that will give enterprises the ability to bring AI to their data, rather than the other way around—while maintaining control, compliance posture and real-time performance."