IBM’s second-largest acquisition ever, the $11 billion buyout of data streaming company Confluent, is expected to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) and hybrid cloud capabilities.
By using Confluent’s real-time data streaming technology to feed AI models, the company is betting on faster, more reliable data pipelines. But can this help reassert the Big Blue’s AI play? Mint explains
Why did IBM buy Confluent?
On 17 March, global tech major closed the buyout of Confluent, a US-based data streaming company. At $11 billion, this is IBM’s second-largest acquisition in recent years, after the Red Hat buyout in 2019 for $34 billion. The deal is expected to help IBM boost Agentic AI capabilities.
As companies shift from AI pilots to production, they struggle with fragmented data. Confluent’s streaming technology, built on Apache Kafka can handle constant data flows from different sources and apps like at airports. It can organize data on flight schedules, travellers, security, baggage, etc, enabling continuous data flow across hybrid environments. Confluent’s technology will become the backbone of IBM’s platform for helping clients access their data for various AI use cases.
How does Confluent help enterprises?
US-based helps companies manage and streamline their data. Founded in 2014, Confluent provides a data-in-motion platform that lets organizations stream, connect, process, and govern data in real time. Its products—Confluent Cloud and Confluent Platform—act like a central nervous system for enterprises, enabling applications to react to events such as transactions, supply chain updates or fraud alerts.
Confluent has over 6,000 customers (around 40% are Fortune 500 companies) which modernize operations by ensuring data is continuously flowing and ready for AI-driven decision-making. Some of its customers in India include Meesho, Swiggy, Mobile Premier League, Jio Platforms, BFSI companies and others.
Can IBM scale up its AI play with Confluent?
Yes. This acquisition is part of IBM’s effort to reassert its leadership in AI. Technology vendors are increasingly selling tools to help their customers use, manage and create AI agents. For IBM, Confluent’s technology will become the backbone of its platforms for helping business clients access their data for various AI uses.
By embedding Confluent’s streaming into IBM Watsonx and hybrid cloud services, IBM is differentiating itself as the provider of AI-ready infrastructure.
Are enterprises able to use their data efficiently to make AI agents and bots better?
Not yet fully. That’s why the transition from AI pilots to actual deployment has been slow. Many enterprises face fragmented data silos, governance gaps and latency issues that limit AI’s effectiveness and response. This leads to reliability and trust issues.
While prototyping AI agents is easy, scaling them requires secure, production-grade data pipelines. Platforms like Confluent and IBM’s watsonx aim to bridge this gap by delivering domain-specific, continuously refreshed data with built-in lineage and policy enforcement.
Enterprises that invest in strong data foundations are better positioned to deploy AI agents that enhance productivity, decision-making and customer experiences.
How could the acquisition reshape AI adoption across IBM’s customers in India?
IBM’s acquisition of Confluent can help reshape AI adoption in India by giving enterprises real-time access to trusted, clean, governed data across hybrid cloud and legacy systems.
For banks, telecoms and healthcare providers, this means AI agents can move beyond pilot projects to production scale, powered by continuous data streams rather than batch updates.
The integration strengthens IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy, enabling firms to modernize without discarding existing infrastructure. While challenges remain — such as training and upskilling teams in Kafka-based streaming and managing compliance — the deal positions IBM as a data-in-motion enabler, accelerating generative and agentic AI across data-intensive industries.
Will Confluent buyout strengthen IBM’s agentic AI play?
Yes. The acquisition is key to the company’s vision of positioning IBM as a leading player in hybrid cloud-computing and AI, where it competes with AWS, Google and Microsoft Azure. Confluent is IBM’s second-largest deal in history, and also aims to give businesses a way to make use of their legacy IT systems and data in the AI era.
—autonomous agents that act on live information — requires continuous, trusted data streams. Confluent’s platform ensures that AI agents don’t rely on outdated or siloed inputs but instead operate on fresh, governed, real-time data. This strengthens IBM’s vision of AI agents automating workflows across different industries.