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IBM and Deepgram have announced a strategic collaboration to integrate Deepgram’s advanced speech technologies into watsonx Orchestrate, IBM’s generative AI solution for enterprise automation.
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Under the agreement, Deepgram becomes IBM’s first dedicated voice technology partner, delivering fast, reliable, and scalable speech-to-text (STT) and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities designed to meet enterprise-grade requirements.
Powering Real-Time Transcription and Conversational AI
To address growing demand for high-performance transcription, real-time captioning, and voice-enabled workflows, IBM will embed Deepgram’s voice AI directly into watsonx Orchestrate. This integration enables enterprises to automate operations and deploy conversational AI systems that allow users to interact with digital agents using natural speech.
The collaboration enhances IBM’s ability to deliver voice-driven automation at scale, supporting modern enterprise use cases across multiple industries.
Handling Real-World Audio at Enterprise Scale
As organizations increasingly adopt AI-powered speech solutions, they face challenges such as background noise, diverse accents, and complex, real-world dialogue. The Deepgram–IBM integration addresses these issues by supporting a broad range of languages and dialects, including dozens of Arabic and Indian variants, as well as regionally accurate voices.
Additional capabilities include custom model tuning, real-time captioning, and natural-sounding speech synthesis, ensuring high accuracy and low latency even in demanding environments.
Expanding Use Cases Across Regulated Industries
The enhanced voice capabilities unlock new possibilities for automated customer service, call analytics, and voice-driven data entry, particularly in sectors such as healthcare and finance where accuracy, speed, and compliance are critical.
By embedding these features within watsonx Orchestrate, enterprises can streamline workflows while improving user experience and operational efficiency.
Leadership Perspectives on the Partnership
Commenting on the collaboration, Scott Stephenson, CEO and Co-Founder of Deepgram, highlighted the growing role of voice as a core interface for enterprise AI.
“Voice is rapidly becoming the default interface between humans and technology, and enterprise deployments require a real-time platform that is accurate, low latency, and reliable at scale,” Stephenson said.
“By embedding Deepgram inside watsonx Orchestrate Agent Builder, IBM clients can build voice agents and voice-enabled workflows on top of a real-time foundation refined over more than a decade.”
Also speaking, Nick Holda, Vice President of AI Technology Partnerships at IBM, said the integration strengthens IBM’s open AI ecosystem.
“Our watsonx Orchestrate integration powered by Deepgram APIs introduces new speech recognition and transcription capabilities to IBM clients, modernising their operations and helping them accelerate AI initiatives,” Holda said.
Strengthening Enterprise AI Ecosystems
Voice interfaces are quickly becoming essential to enterprise AI strategies. This collaboration reinforces IBM’s position as a provider of flexible, enterprise-ready AI solutions, while expanding Deepgram’s reach to new customers through a trusted global technology partner.
For both companies, the partnership underscores a shared focus on delivering reliable, real-time voice AI platforms capable of supporting large-scale, mission-critical deployments.
