With groundbreaking technology such as artificial intelligence and quantum emerging over the past couple years, one recurring question is how to afford it. IBM Corp. is addressing that issue head on with a new product lineup that keeps costs low.

The company’s recent announcements include IBM Concert, an automation platform that helps users manage their AI applications, as well as other AI-powered automation tools aimed at reducing company spending.

Ajay Patel  and Bill Lobig of IBM discuss IBM’s new emphasis on financial operations practices in a conversation with theCUBE.

“Cost is becoming a major constraint. IT budgets are competing for AI projects and everything else for keeping the lights on. And so the practice by how you get control of your costs is becoming critical,” said Ajay Patel (pictured right), general manager of Apptio, an IBM company, and IBM IT Automation. “Forty-seven of the 50 Fortune 50 are on the FinOps community and we have a groundswell of practitioners who are looking to see how … we bring the financial discipline.”

Patel and Bill Lobig (left), vice president of IBM Automation product management at IBM, spoke with theCUBE Research’s Dave Vellante at IBM Think, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed best financial practices for companies migrating to the cloud and IBM’s vision for automation. (* Disclosure below.)

Cutting costs with automation

Customer demands are increasingly in real-time, according to Patel, and that means automation has to be an essential part of any business ecosystem. IBM Concert will bring together the company’s AI and automation tools into one management platform, reflecting its new focus on AI middleware.

“Given the breadth of the automation portfolio and the complexity and how they all need to come together and break the silos, it was important for us to start painting a vision and a brand that brought all our capabilities together,” Patel said. “Concert is the next generation management platform that brings best-of-breed solutions that’s AI enabled and has an AI-enabled action framework. “

AI is currently straining many budgets, but IBM hopes to employ it to aid companies in finding the best return on investment for new technologies. Machine learning is just another tool for staying financially conscious, according to Lobig, 

“My vision for what we’re doing to bring Apptio and IBM technology together is to empower the IT organization, the SREs, the DevOps, to be responsible stewards of the budgets that are empowered upon them,” he said.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of IBM Think:

(* Disclosure: IBM Corp. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither IBM nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE