2025 is regarded by the industry as the year of AI agents, and many companies hope to build their own AI agents. At the same time, enterprises are actively exploring how to effectively connect AI with their existing applications.



For example, a company receives product quality issues from customers and uses AI to summarize how to correct the quality problem. However, how to convey this information or instructions to the existing quality management system of the enterprise, notify the existing knowledge base of the enterprise, let the personnel of the enterprise know about these issues, and tell its suppliers: your product quality is problematic?


In this example, five applications of the enterprise are involved - AI Agent, Quality Management System, Knowledge Base, Email System, and Supplier Management System. Let's imagine that if an AI agent were to adapt and connect to each application on its own, it would need to know the characteristics of the integrated applications, how to connect these applications, what data formats are appropriate for these applications, what the calling protocol for the applications is, and so on. According to reports from international consulting firms, in 2023, enterprises will use an average of 1061 applications, and interconnecting so many applications will inevitably require a significant amount of time, money, and effort from enterprises. For AI agents, it is no exception, as they also require a lot of time and money to train and learn how to connect these applications. So, at this point, an application integration platform is needed to help enterprises effectively manage and connect multiple heterogeneous applications.

What does an application integration platform mean for enterprises?

Let's give a metaphor: the human brain issues tasks and instructions through neural networks, allowing hands and feet to work together. The relationship between AI and enterprise applications is like the relationship between the brain and hands and feet. The application integration platform we are talking about is like the human "central nervous network". Simply put，The application integration platform has four major functions：

• High speed information transmission。As the saying goes, if you want to be rich, first build roads. The application integration platform is like a highway to help us achieve effective communication and transmission of information between various applications.
• Flexible information scheduling。According to the instructions sent by the brain, send this information to the appropriate destination, just like the airport tower dispatch command system. In the scheduling process, the application integration platform also has a super translation function. According to the content required by each system, the application integration platform will effectively complete the conversion of various information.
• Centralized interface governance。All system interactions are conducted through an application integration platform, which can record various information generated during the application interaction process as needed, clearly identify problems that arise during the system interaction process, and more effectively manage interactions between applications.
• Self service API Market。The application integration platform aggregates the reusable service capabilities of various applications, providing a centralized management venue for application interfaces (i.e. APIs). Various applications can publish, search, and consume these capabilities on demand and self-service, thereby helping enterprises reuse existing digital assets, reducing redundant IT construction, and accelerating the speed of new business launch.

What functions can IBM Application Integration Platform provide for enterprises?

Firstly, IBM has over thirty years of experience in helping clients plan, use, and operate application integration platforms. IBM provides rich application integration software that adapts to hundreds of existing applications. Users can integrate various scenarios within the application through a software.

Secondly, IBM's application integration platform integrates AI capabilities, which we can call AI+Integration. For a non-technical customer, they can easily use natural language to tell IBM's application integration platform to automate the application integration scenarios they desire. This is a capability that many manufacturers do not possess.

Thirdly, IBM provides customers with a stable, efficient, and secure agile integration platform. According to a report from an international consulting firm, by using IBM's application integration platform, the average downtime of customers has been reduced by 40%, the application launch cycle has been accelerated by 66%, and the return on investment has increased by 176%.

Fourthly, it is also very important. Many domestic enterprises want to go global, which requires compliance and compliance with local laws and regulations; Strong security capabilities are also required, as it involves network information transmission between public clouds and different data centers. The IBM application integration platform can provide strong security capabilities, comply with the GDPR requirements of the European Union, and ensure that overseas enterprises comply with local legal and regulatory requirements.

Nowadays, enterprises are increasingly valuing the construction of AI, and the integration capability of its applications plays a crucial role here. IBM continues to enhance the capabilities of its application integration platform, such as acquiring some internationally renowned software vendors and consolidating the integration capabilities required for various scenarios into one platform, endowing it with stronger capabilities, including AI capabilities, compliance capabilities, multi cloud hybrid integration capabilities, and future automated process scheduling capabilities will gradually be added to the integration platform.