The UAE's Technology Group e& has announced a collaboration with IBM to deploy an end-to-end, multi-model Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI governance solution. Announced on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos, this "collaboration intends to enhance e&'s AI governance framework to promote compliance, oversight, and ethical practices across its AI ecosystem," according to a joint statement from the companies.
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Addressing Challenges
The solution will leverage IBM's watsonx.governance enterprise AI and data governance platform along with IBM Consulting's expertise in AI implementation to enhance e&'s AI governance framework, ensuring compliance, transparency, and ethical oversight of AI models.
This collaboration will bring IBM's toolkit for AI governance to address critical challenges, such as maintaining consistent oversight of E&'s AI systems, navigating risks like non-compliance and ethical concerns, and monitoring AI performance at scale.
According to the official release, e& is proactively enhancing its AI ecosystem by establishing a robust framework for accountability, mitigating potential biases, and safeguarding data. By leveraging IBM's technology and consulting expertise, e& plans to develop scalable and transparent AI operations, the companies said in a joint statement.
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Key Features of the New AI Governance Solution
The new AI governance solution introduces features such as automated risk management, compliance monitoring, and real-time performance analysis. These capabilities will enable e& to mitigate risks, detect biases, and address regulatory standards throughout the AI model lifecycle—from development to decommissioning.
"By adopting IBM watsonx.governance, we're taking a decisive step forward in our AI journey. This collaboration ensures transparency, explainability and efficiency across our AI operations, raising the bar for AI governance in the industry," said Dena Almansoori, Group Chief AI and Data Officer at e&.
The deployment of governance solution aims to provide e& with real-time insights into AI use cases, performance, and risks, helping the company proactively manage potential AI risks in production and deliver measurable value to stakeholders.
"By establishing a centralised inventory of AI models, the solution supports full traceability and oversight. IBM watsonx.governance facilitates dynamic monitoring, offering real-time insights into model performance, risk scoring, and compliance metrics. This helps enable e& to detect issues like bias and drift early, allowing for corrective action and ethical AI practices," the official release said.
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IBM to work with e&
IBM Consulting will work closely with e& to design and implement a comprehensive AI governance framework tailored to the company's needs. This includes defining workflows and key performance indicators and onboarding existing AI models onto the platform to deliver real-time insights into AI's value, impact, and potential risks.
"IBM watsonx empowers organisations like e& to navigate the complexities of AI governance. By integrating automation, real-time monitoring, and centralised oversight, we are addressing key governance challenges and reducing risks associated with AI," said Shukri Eid, General Manager for the Gulf, Levant and Pakistan at IBM. "Strengthening our long-standing partnership with e&, this milestone serves as a catalyst for responsible AI innovation."
Scaling AI with IBM Consulting Expertise
The deployment will also utilise IBM Consulting, an AI-powered delivery platform, to accelerate the development of the AI governance framework through persona and journey mapping, market research, architecture patterns for AI integration, and knowledge transfer materials.
This collaboration builds on the existing relationship between IBM and e&, including their recent joint report, MENA's AI Advantage: Opportunity to Leap Ahead and Lead (Middle East and North Africa perspective), which features insights from top businesses in the region and data from IBM's CEO study.
