IBM has opened its Agentic AI Innovation Centre at its Bengaluru campus, pioneering a new frontier in India’s artificial intelligence landscape. The facility is specifically designed to help enterprises, startups, and developers build, test, and operationalize autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex, multi-step tasks with minimal human intervention—heralding a shift from traditional AI assistants to proactive, decision-making systems.

At the heart of the centre is IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate platform, which provides users with tools to fine-tune small language models, audit agent processes, and deploy real-world AI agents. These agents can interpret context, adapt to unexpected scenarios, and integrate across systems—moving beyond predefined rules and toward dynamic operational autonomy.

Senior Vice President Dinesh Nirmal described the opening as a turning point, noting how these intelligent agents will “act, adapt and collaborate in real time,” transforming AI strategies from reactive solutions to proactive operational platforms. Businesses now have access to a hands-on environment where they can prototype and deploy agents across use cases such as issue resolution, process orchestration, customer support, and IT operations—enabling measurable improvements in productivity and agility.

Notably, preliminary IBM internal deployments have demonstrated substantial results: AI agents are alleviating HR ticket volumes, performing predictive IT remediation, and streamlining claims processing in finance. This highlights IBM’s commitment to moving beyond pilot stages toward scaling enterprise-grade agentic AI workflows.

The Bengaluru centre complements IBM’s GenAI Innovation Centre launched in Kochi in July 2024, forming the backbone of its India Software Lab strategy. It underscores IBM’s efforts to decentralize AI innovation in India, enabling industry-wide collaboration—spanning public infrastructure, healthcare, education, and sustainability—under a robust governance framework.

In India’s rapidly evolving AI ecosystem, this development arrives at a critical juncture. A recent IBM–Oxford Economics survey found that 78% of Indian business leaders view agentic AI as a key enabler of decision-making and are actively encouraging experimentation across their organisations.

By providing a dedicated hub for autonomous AI innovation, IBM is positioning India as a global hub for enterprise-class AI development. The centre offers technology firms, government agencies, and startups an accelerated path to deploy intellectual, scalable AI solutions—laying a foundation for intelligent systems that operate reliably, ethically, and autonomously in real‑world environments.