Alight, Inc. (NYSE: ALIT), a leading provider of cloud-based human capital and technology-enabled services, has announced an expanded, multi-year collaboration with IBM to integrate IBM watsonx into Alight’s suite of offerings. The partnership aims to transform how employers deliver and manage benefits while optimizing enterprise operations through responsible, AI-driven innovation.
As part of the initiative, Alight and IBM will establish a virtual AI innovation lab to accelerate experimentation and development of new AI solutions. The lab will unite experts from both companies, alongside select Alight clients, to co-create and test prototypes, streamline employee benefits administration, and design next-generation capabilities tailored to the evolving needs of HR and benefits leaders.
Accelerating AI Innovation for the Workforce of the Future
Early prototypes developed under the existing collaboration—focused on Alight Worklife’s AI Assistant—have demonstrated potential to boost employee productivity by over 90%, underscoring the transformative impact of AI-powered tools in HR and benefits ecosystems. Full-scale pilots are expected in early 2026, with broader rollout planned for the first half of 2026.
“This collaboration with IBM represents a pivotal moment in delivering high-tech innovation with a human touch across our platform,” said Dave Guilmette, Chief Executive Officer at Alight. “By embedding IBM watsonx enterprise AI throughout our portfolio of solutions, as well as within Alight Worklife®, we are transforming how employers assess and measure the impact of their offerings and how employees experience their benefits.”
watsonx Orchestrate: Powering Intelligent Automation
At the center of the collaboration is IBM watsonx Orchestrate, a platform offering more than 500 tools and customizable AI agents. Alight will use watsonx Orchestrate to automate workflows, eliminate data silos, and improve interoperability across its systems and applications.
Through the watsonx Orchestrate Agent Catalog—a marketplace launched in May—Alight will gain access to prebuilt and custom AI agents that streamline benefits administration, HR service delivery, and operational decision-making.
“We’re excited to be working with Alight to create AI-powered human capital solutions that will benefit many of the world’s largest organizations and their employees,” said Adam Lawrence, General Manager, IBM Americas. “Together, we’re not just automating tasks—we’re transforming enterprise operations and enabling continuous innovation.”
Four Strategic Domains of AI Innovation
The collaboration will focus on four primary domains, all underpinned by responsible AI governance and enterprise-grade orchestration:
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Embedding watsonx across Alight Worklife® – Enabling personalized chat, automation, and insights across benefits administration, health, wealth, and leave management.
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AI-Enabled Benefits Modernization – Streamlining data models and automating insights to reduce complexity and accelerate onboarding.
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Enhancing the Alight Colleague Experience – Automating internal HR and IT workflows, mirroring IBM’s “Client Zero” transformation projected to generate $4B in productivity savings.
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Advancing Delivery and Productivity – Leveraging generative and agentic AI to enhance client implementation speed, satisfaction, and employee benefits utilization.
Responsible and Transparent AI at Scale
The collaboration will leverage IBM watsonx.governance to uphold transparency, accountability, and compliance across all AI deployments. This includes lifecycle management, bias evaluation, regulatory mapping, and audit trails—reinforcing Alight’s ongoing commitment to ethical and responsible AI adoption.
With this strategic partnership, Alight and IBM are redefining the intersection of human capital and AI, empowering employers to deliver more personalized, efficient, and meaningful employee experiences—while driving measurable gains in productivity and enterprise value.
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Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. Public relations, investor relations, public policy and marketing professionals rely on Business Wire for secure and accurate distribution of market-moving news and multimedia. Founded in 1961, Business Wire is a trusted source for news organizations, journalists, investment professionals and regulatory authorities, delivering news directly into editorial systems and leading online news sources via its multi-patented NX network. Business Wire’s global newsrooms are available to meet the needs of communications professionals and news media worldwide.
