Partnership integrates Claude with select internal and external development tools, as well as enterprise products, aiming to generate new productivity gains for IBM clients
IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Anthropic announce a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of enterprise-grade AI by integrating Claude—one of the world's most advanced language model families—into IBM's software portfolio. The goal is to generate measurable productivity gains by incorporating security, governance, and cost control directly into the software development lifecycle.
As part of the partnership, Claude will be integrated into select IBM products, starting with the new AI-focused integrated development environment (IDE), designed for the enterprise software development lifecycle (SDLC), including application modernization. The IDE features advanced task generation capabilities.
The IDE is available in private preview for select IBM clients. In initial testing, more than 6,000 early adopters within IBM are already using the new tool, reporting average productivity gains of 45%, which translates into significant cost savings while maintaining code quality and security standards.
As organizations move from AI experimentation to production deployment, the need for solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing corporate infrastructure and meet stringent IT requirements grows. IBM offers proven expertise in enterprise software delivery, hybrid cloud architecture, and regulated industries—ensuring that AI tools work within the complex realities of global business.
“IBM has been the backbone of enterprise technology for decades because we understand what it takes to scale in critical environments,” said Dinesh Nirmal, Senior Vice President of Software at IBM. “This partnership strengthens our software portfolio with advanced AI capabilities while maintaining the governance, security, and reliability our clients expect. We’re offering development teams AI that adapts to how businesses operate—not experimental tools that create new risks.”
“Businesses are looking for AI they can truly trust—with their code, data, and day-to-day operations,” said Mike Krieger, Chief Product Officer at Anthropic. “Claude has become the AI of choice for developers at the world’s largest companies thanks to our focus on safety and reliability. This partnership with IBM allows us to bring that same level of commitment to even more enterprise teams, while building open standards that will make AI agents truly useful in business environments.”
Automating the Software Development Lifecycle
Using cutting-edge language models like Claude, IBM's new IDE is designed to boost developer productivity. Supporting multiple languages and workflows, it offers advanced use cases to support tasks across multiple stages of the software development lifecycle, including:
- Application modernization at scale: Automated system updates, framework migrations, and context-aware multi-step refactoring across large codebases.
- Intelligent code generation and review: AI assistance that understands enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, and compliance obligations.
- End-to-end orchestration: From initial development to testing, deployment, and maintenance, orchestrate modernization, testing, and patching tasks continuously while maintaining context between sessions.
- Security-focused development: Security built directly into workflows, with early vulnerability scanning (“shift-left”), accelerated FedRAMP compliance, and support for migrating to quantum-resistant cryptography
Guide to Enterprise AI Agents with MCP Servers
As part of the partnership, IBM created — and Anthropic validated — the guide “Architecting Secure Enterprise AI Agents with MCP”. This is the first guide of its kind aimed at Agent Development Life Cycle (ADLC), a structured approach to designing, deploying, and managing AI agents in enterprise environments.
As organizations adopt AI agents for autonomous decision-making and intelligent automation, traditional IT processes may become insufficient. ADLC offers a tailored methodology to meet the development, operation, and security requirements of these agents.
In addition to strengthening its software portfolio, IBM is contributing its technology leadership to the advancement of open standards for AI deployment. The company will provide enterprise assets to the AI community. Model Context Protocol (MCP), including best practice guides, reference architectures, and open source tools based on experience with thousands of customers.
IBM is also exploring integrating Claude with other products as part of its AI integration strategy. Together, IBM and Anthropic are shaping the future of enterprise AI—AI that empowers developers, drives transformation, and creates lasting value for customers and society.
Statements regarding IBM's and Anthropic's future direction are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and intentions only.
About IBM
IBM is a leading global provider of hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence, and expert consulting. We help clients in more than 175 countries leverage insights from their data, optimize business processes, reduce costs, and gain competitive advantage in their industries. Thousands of governments and companies in critical infrastructure areas—such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare—trust IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to quickly, efficiently, and securely achieve their digital transformations. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions, and consulting offer open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's historic commitment to trust, transparency, accountability, inclusion, and service excellence.
More information www.ibm.com.
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