After reading all these post, it is clear we are watching once a great company on a path to diappear. Following the footsteps of Kodak and many others. What a shame! :-(
Do you think AI will save it?
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We got our answer today and it’s YES IBM crushed earnings and raised their forecast for the rest of 2024 and for 2025
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/ibm-isnt-playing-same-ai-215501749.html
AI is nothing more than automating labor. You can buy AI SW from a number of vendors, so everyone has the same ability to automate their labor. Will automating labor save IBM? It depends on how IBM decides to restructure that labor savings, and into what new products if any it will invest. If IBM doesn’t innovate with their savings, then they need to shrink as their current overhead is not competitive vs their competition
ibm show cased Watson on jeopardy. 3 years later Microsoft had out smarted them with a better solution. Winning jepardy, did nothing ii think for IBM's bottom line. Even now they are in play catchup with chatGPT with watson X. never a leader always a follower now IBM!!!!
'You have to wonder what all the BS about IBM AI Ethics is all about'
IBM AI Ethics = censorship, control of media
You have to wonder what all the BS about IBM AI Ethics is all about, especially since AK and his executives don't believe in ethics when it comes to layoffs of IBM US employees :
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-recommits-rome-call-ai-120000406.html
Oh wait, maybe the Vatican is considering buying a new Z series mainframe to count their change in the collection boxes, so that is what is driving this announcement. After all, money talks and BS walks.
i think after the massive fiasco caught on tape of them admitting they were breaking the law by firing managers who refused to discriminate in hiring, etc - the world has decided they can not trust the company to deliver unbiased AI systems. After all - who would want to buy something trained up by a company whose fundamental charter statements these days would feed into the engine?
Very strange of all of us can see AI is not an answer, and we are IBMers. Then what is left, I guess find another job :-(
Strong disagree. While it is true that IBM has historically had a strong sales background, the sales organization was dedicated to selling a unique product catalog that only IBM could offer. IBM products were (and to a large degree, still are) compelling in their particular market segments, making them relatively easy to package and sell.
There's no reason to buy IBM-relabeled product when you can go to a primary source. It may be true that IBM can start with somebody else's stuff, but they still need to offer value-add (and a lot of it) if they hope to make significant sales. That's a large part of their problem right now...other than mainframes and selected bits and pieces of enterprise software, there's nothing else in their catalog that isn't offered better and cheaper by somebody else.
Back to the OP's question. Unless IBM can offer something that isn't available from ChatGPT, Google or one of the other big names, it's hard to see how AI will help IBM much less "save it". Maybe they can develop Watson into something compelling...it has a great name and a great computing history behind it, but it needs to be something more imaginative and compelling than just another mainframe add-on for a few large enterprises. They have AK and the IBM brain trust right now, but they really need a Steve Jobs...someone who can ask basic questions:
"What is this s?" "Why are we doing this?" "What does this s do for the customer?" "Why would we expect a customer to pay money for this s***?"
F**K IBM and let the the horrible company go to he-l. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of slimy executives like AK and his evil henchmen / women. After all, what good does any of them do for any employees apart from giving lame interviews on the news channels to say the company is still alive after lay offs?
What do you mean by "save IBM"? You have to realize that IBM is now first and foremost a sales organization. They need technology products to sell, but those products don't need to be (and increasingly aren't) invented by or developed by IBM. Thus, homegrown AI innovation won't save IBM. However, if IBM can figure out how to turn other company's AI innovations into sales, they can still do well.
IBM near death experience in the '90s from which we reinvented ourselves.
Can we do it again?
In the 1990s IBM had a vast amount of capital built up over decades to spend on a turnaround. Today, IBM has net debt - i.e. we owe more than we have.
In a word… “No”… IBM has been unable to really lead for years now…
Unless IBM makes some sort of breakthrough in something that we've got a niche in and that leads to significant profits (the only thing I can think of here possibly is Quantum - although I'm not even sure what market that may end up being / how realistic that is), I can't see IBM's level of investment in R&D outstripping the rest of the market in any area.
As a result, I can only forsee stagnation in the long term, even if there's a chance of a 'rising tide raising all ships' with respect to AI - although personally I feel it's more shovel-sellers telling us there's gold in those hills right now.
Any chance that we can make it go "harder, faster,harder, faster, faster", baby (sort of like like an addict on speed ?) We gotta have that IBM engine to fire out by the end of Q3 2024. Q4 is always a drag and oh so dismal. So, come on AK and JK, and light up the funeral pyre.
And, most important - you gotta enjoy the ride downhill ! After all, you guys created it.
Four words and a letter. Watson. Code. Assistant. For. Z. This is not only a complete grift, it is also a major pillar in IBM's AI play. McDonald's voice order taking system was once also a major pillar. But it does not, did not and cannot work and is now retired. Get "Watson Code Assistant for Z" and try it out. It has no chance of working on any real COBOL program. And if IBM works really hard on it, in five years, it still won't work largely because it is management driven and not engineering driven.
Will AI save IBM?
IBM will get a few mugs to waste money on what they offer. They will sell that as evidence that AI is IBM's future and maybe pick off one or two more marks as a result. But since this garbage is garbage, sooner or later no more patsies will be sitting down at this table. Mothers and fathers are already teaching children to beware of IBM carnival barkers. They use "IBM hybrid cloud" as a parable for the mistaken life choices that can be made by being seduced by sociopaths. Investing your business' future in IBM AI is basically just giving your money to the hustlers and hoping to retire before this facade comes crashing down and your employer wants some sort of accounting.
I'm not kidding: Watson Code Assistant For Z is one of the premiere AI offerings that IBM has. Get it and try it and rate it.
Company is sinking fast!!!
Q. IBM near death experience in the '90s from which we reinvented ourselves.
Can we do it again?
A. Sure, when he-l freezes over !
IBM near death experience in the '90s from which we reinvented ourselves. Can we do it again?
Nope, AI ain't gonna save IBM in a million years. Anyone investing in IBM AI is just throwing their money away on "smoke and mirrors" products, which have little or no support when support goes to India; AK and his cheap executives like to save a buck or two on quality support from the US by laying off the support staff. The same applies if you go in for Red Hat products. You would be better entertained and delighted by going to the circus and spending a whole lot less watching the clowns than buying anything from IBM.
For the best bang for the buck in AI software, try the Microsoft, Google, Meta companies. IBM is not the future of AI, although it is source of AK's $25+ million bonus in 2025 ! Well, someone has to get rich at IBM, and it sure doesn't take any AI to figure that one out. It just needs JK's crooked financial engineering genius (like Wile E. Coyote).