This Week in Enterprise AI: From CFO Strategies to Apple’s Developer Leap
Welcome to this edition of NexaQuanta weekly AI newsletter — your source for the most important breakthroughs and business applications of artificial intelligence. Whether you’re tracking enterprise tech trends, modernizing operations, or exploring generative AI, we bring you the insights that matter most. Let’s dive into what’s shaping the AI landscape this week.
In this issue, we explore how CFOs embrace AI to drive operational efficiency despite lingering adoption hurdles. We also highlight IBM’s latest hybrid AI technologies, including powerful upgrades to watsonx Orchestrate and its new AI-ready mainframe, z17, designed to support automation at scale. And in a bold move to expand its ecosystem, Apple is opening up its AI frameworks to developers, setting the stage for deeper AI integration across iOS, macOS, and more.
CFOs Embrace AI to Boost Financial Efficiency, But Adoption Remains Slow
AI is No Longer Just Hype
Artificial Intelligence is becoming a powerful force in finance. It’s helping Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) plan more accurately, respond faster to change, and manage operations more precisely.
IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) conducted three research studies to understand this shift. These studies explored how finance leaders use AI, which key performance indicators (KPIs) they track, and how mature AI adopters perform.
The results show that AI is delivering the most value in four key finance processes:
- Financial planning and analysis
- Order-to-cash
- Procure-to-pay
- Record-to-report
The Rise of Responsible AI in Finance
As growth strategies shift and agentic AI becomes a hot topic, CFOs are eager to use AI—but wisely.
- 69% of CFOs believe AI is central to their finance transformation strategy
- Less than 30% actively use or optimize traditional AI in major processes.
- 56% say executing AI projects is a significant challenge
- 38% feel their AI budgets are too limited for success
CFOs prioritize tech investments, but challenges like talent gaps, data infrastructure needs, system integration, and compliance concerns are slowing adoption. There are also worries about cybersecurity, privacy, and the accuracy of AI in decision-making.
Current Adoption Remains Low
Only 20% to 30% of finance organizations are currently operating or optimizing traditional AI, and the use of generative AI is even lower.
Still, CFOs are committed to change:
- 84% say traditional AI should be adopted in financial planning and analysis
- 83% support its use in procure-to-pay
- 81% want generative AI in procure-to-pay
- 78% see value in generative AI for order-to-cash
This shows a strong intent to scale AI across core finance functions.
Operational Excellence with AI
Organizations using AI effectively are seeing real benefits:
- Budget cycles are completed 33% faster
- Accounts payable costs per invoice are cut by 25%
- Overall finance costs as a percentage of revenue drop by 16%
These gains come from a group IBM calls “mature AI adopters”—only 35% of respondents. These leaders have also been able to shift 30% of their workforce to high-value tasks, compared to just 10% for others.
From predictive analytics to fraud detection, AI enables better decisions, lower costs, and faster growth.
For more details, click here.
IBM Launches Hybrid Technologies to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption
New Tools Enable Faster AI Agent Deployment Using Enterprise Data
IBM had announced a significant expansion of its hybrid AI capabilities to help businesses scale AI across their organizations. These new technologies aim to make it easier for companies to build and deploy AI agents using their data, speeding up the transition from experimentation to tangible business outcomes.
“The era of AI experimentation is over. Today’s competitive advantage comes from purpose-built AI integration that drives measurable business outcomes,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM.
Watsonx Orchestrate Gets a Boost
The updated watsonx Orchestrate now includes:
- A build-your-own-agent feature (under five minutes)
- Pre-built domain-specific agents
- Integration with 80+ enterprise applications
- Tools for agent orchestration and observability
IBM also launched the Agent Catalog within watsonx Orchestrate, offering access to over 150 pre-built AI agents and tools developed in-house and by IBM partners.
Hybrid Integration for Complex Environments
IBM’s new webMethods Hybrid Integration enables intelligent automation across hybrid cloud systems. It simplifies connections between apps, APIs, B2B systems, events, and file transfers.
More Powerful AI with Better Data Management
With the introduction of watsonx data, IBM combines open data lakehouse architecture with data fabric tools to unify and manage data across various environments. This new approach is claimed to be 40% more accurate than conventional retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) models.
The company also unveiled:
- Watsonx data integration, a single interface to orchestrate data pipelines and formats
- Watsonx data intelligence, a tool that uses AI to extract insights from unstructured data
Next-Gen Infrastructure for AI
IBM launched LinuxONE 5, a high-performance and secure platform for running data, applications, and AI workloads. It can handle up to 450 billion AI inference operations daily, powered by state-of-the-art AI accelerators and enhanced security features. The platform also reduces power consumption and operational costs.
Strengthening Hardware Ecosystem
IBM is expanding its collaboration with AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and CoreWeave to enhance compute, storage, and accelerator capabilities for demanding AI workloads.
For further details, visit this link.
IBM Launches z17 Mainframe to Power AI-Driven Automation and Hybrid Cloud Integration
Modernizing the Backbone of Enterprise IT
IBM has introduced the IBM z17®, a next-generation mainframe platform designed to drive digital transformation through AI, automation, and hybrid cloud integration. According to the IBM Institute for Business Value, 79% of IT leaders believe mainframes are essential for AI-driven innovation, underlining the ongoing importance of these systems in enterprise infrastructure.
“We see the move toward digital transformation and hybrid cloud not just as a trend, but a necessity,” said Aparna Sharma, GM and Managing Partner, Hybrid Cloud Services, IBM Consulting.
Why z17 Matters
The z17 platform is built to help enterprises:
- Modernize legacy systems
- Integrate seamlessly with hybrid cloud environments
- Use AI tools to automate operations and extract business insights
It’s engineered for reliability, scalability, and security, offering a way to reduce technical debt, boost efficiency, and use organizational data more effectively.
Three Strategic Approaches to Mainframe Modernization
IBM Consulting recommends a phased strategy for enterprises evaluating z17:
Explore
- Assess modernization potential
- Map transformation roadmaps
- Define ROI and business impact
Enhance
- Consolidate infrastructure
- Optimize costs through hybrid cloud
- Improve scalability and real-time data access
Expand
- Use generative AI and ML to modernize apps
- Increase developer productivity
- Detect anomalies and improve resilience with AI ops
Future-Proofing Enterprise IT
IBM’s z17 initiative reinforces the role of mainframes as powerful engines for innovation, not relics of the past. Through partnerships with IBM Consulting, businesses can transition toward “hybrid by design” operations that balance traditional strengths with cutting-edge AI tools and cloud-native scalability.
Check details here on this page.
Apple to Open Its AI Frameworks to Developers at WWDC 2025
Laying the Foundation for an Apple AI Ecosystem
According to Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly preparing to debut a suite of AI tools and frameworks at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this June. The aim is to let third-party developers build on top of Apple’s own AI models.
This move signals a strategic shift for Apple as it works to gain ground in the competitive AI race. It joins rivals like Google and Microsoft in expanding developer access to proprietary AI infrastructure.
What’s Coming
- Apple’s new AI framework will allow developers to integrate “Apple Intelligence” into their apps, starting with access to smaller Apple AI models.
- This initiative will boost developer engagement and app innovation across Apple’s ecosystem.
Beyond AI: A Broader Overhaul
WWDC 2025 will also feature:
- Major updates to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
- AI-powered features, including battery optimization tools
- A new Health app, reportedly AI-enabled, is expected to launch in 2026
Why It Matters
By empowering developers to leverage its AI models, Apple is not just enhancing its app ecosystem — it’s laying the groundwork for a tightly integrated, privacy-first AI experience across its devices. This move could reshape how developers build apps on Apple platforms and how users interact with AI on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Check more details here.
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