India, Bengaluru, October 1, 2026 – IBM today announced expansions of two long-standing research collaborations in India: one with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, and another with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to accelerate innovation in agentic AI, sovereign AI, quantum computing and next-generation computing systems.

Building on a collaboration that began with IIT Bombay in 2018, IBM researchers will continue to work alongside faculty and students to explore sovereign and Indic language model adaption, multimodal AI, as well as AI infrastructure and knowledge retrieval. With IISc, IBM researchers will continue a collaboration that began in 2021, which covers agentic systems, AI for applications, and quantum computing algorithm development.

Strategic Focus Areas of the IBM-IIT Bombay Collaboration

• Sovereign and Indic language model adaptation: Advancing sovereign AI and Indic language models to improve multilingual AI capabilities for Indian languages through more efficient model adaptation and optimization techniques.
• Multimodal AI systems: The collaboration will also focus on developing multimodal AI systems that strengthen software programming education, human-AI collaboration and intelligent operations across hybrid cloud environments.
• AI Infrastructure and Knowledge Retrieval: Enhancing intelligent knowledge retrieval by developing AI systems that deliver faster, more accurate and scalable access to enterprise knowledge. The effort will be to optimize AI runtimes and distributed inference to improve the performance, efficiency and scalability of large language models.

Key Pillars of the IBM-IISc Research Collaboration

• Agentic Systems: Agentic AI workflows that improve orchestration across hybrid cloud environments, enabling more efficient management of AI applications while balancing performance, cost and operational complexity.
• AI for Scientific and Industry Applications: Creating lightweight time-series foundation models based on the IBM Granite model family for energy analytics to support forecasting, anomaly detection, load disaggregation and energy optimization, while contributing benchmark datasets to accelerate broader AI research.
• Quantum Computing: Exploring orchestration for quantum and high-performance computing to accelerate scientific discovery through more efficient quantum-centric supercomputing workflows and next-generation quantum-HPC algorithms. These algorithms would leverage approximation-tolerant classical diagonalization algorithms to improve quantum subspace iteration methods

Speaking on the collaborations, Dr. Amith Singhee, Director, IBM Research India and CTO, IBM India and South Asia, said, "The next wave of computing will be shaped by advances in agentic AI, sovereign AI, and quantum computing. Our collaborations with IIT Bombay and IISc bring together world-class academic research and IBM's scientific expertise to solve some of the most complex challenges in these areas. Together, we are advancing research that not only pushes the boundaries of computing but also creates practical technologies that can benefit enterprises, developers and society."

Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Institute Chair Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, said, “The power of AI is already being demonstrated in systems that can seamlessly understand and reason across languages, modalities and domains. Our joint efforts with IBM Research are laying the foundation for such intelligent systems through advances in multimodal AI models, knowledge retrieval, optimization techniques, agentic AI workflows, AI-assisted software engineering and education. By bringing together complementary strengths in AI, language, knowledge and intelligent computing, we envision trustworthy, inclusive and scalable AI technologies that can transform how people learn, work and access knowledge in India and across the world.” 

Prof. Yogesh Simmhan, Professor in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences, IISc, said, “The future of computing will be shaped by the convergence of hybrid cloud, AI agents and quantum technologies. IISc and IBM bring complementary research strengths to jointly explore intelligent, cloud-native platforms that can reason, adapt and orchestrate quantum-classical, edge AI and agentic workflows at scale, translating frontier ideas into trustworthy, sustainable technologies with real-world impact for India and the world.”

As IBM extends its collaborations with IIT Bombay and IISc into their next phases, the research agenda reflects the evolving needs of enterprise AI—from trusted and sovereign AI to quantum-centric supercomputing workflows and intelligent infrastructure. By bringing together IBM’s expertise in AI, hybrid cloud and quantum computing with the academic excellence of two of India's leading research institutions, the collaborations aim to accelerate innovations that align with national goals, are scientifically rigorous, industry-relevant and designed for real-world impact.

Since the inception of these collaborations, IBM, IIT Bombay and IISc have worked together to advance research across artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, distributed systems and quantum computing, while creating opportunities for students and researchers to tackle industry-inspired challenges. As the collaborations enter their next phase, they will continue to foster interdisciplinary research, nurture the next generation of scientific talent and accelerate innovations that help shape the future of computing.

About IISc
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was established in 1909 by a visionary partnership between the industrialist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Mysore royal family and the Government of India. Over the last 117 years, IISc has become India’s premier institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education. Its mandate is “to provide for advanced instruction and to conduct original investigations in all branches of knowledge as are likely to promote the material and industrial welfare of India.” In 2018, IISc was selected as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) by the Government of India, and it consistently figures among the top Indian institutions in world university rankings.

About IIT Bombay

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, set up in 1958 as the second IIT, is recognised worldwide as a leader in the field of science and engineering education and research. The Institute was granted the status of ‘Institution of Eminence’ by the Ministry of Education (the then Ministry of Human Resources Development) on July 9, 2018. IIT Bombay is reputed for the quality of its faculty, cutting-edge research, industry relations, and the outstanding caliber of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The Institute has 40 Academics Divisions, 29 Research Centres and 9 Section 8 Companies. Over the last six decades, more than 78,000 engineers and scientists have graduated from the Institute. It is served by 770 faculty, including 121 women faculty (plus 241 part-time faculty), considered not only amongst the best within the country but also highly recognised in the world for achievements in the field of education and research. On June 18, 2026, IIT Bombay was ranked 2nd in India and 134th in the world in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for 2027.

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.   

Media Contacts

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay
IIT Bombay PRO -  pro@iitb.ac.in

Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
IISc Office of Communications - news@iisc.ac.in

IBM
Prasanna Ramanathan | prasanna.s.r@ibm.com
Antonetta Kumar | antonkum@in.ibm.com