IBM Launches AI Lighthouse Council for SAP Utilities

IBM has launched the IBM AI Lighthouse Council for companies using SAP utilities. This is a first-of-its-kind collaborative initiative that brings together leading companies and IBM to build a shared agentic AI layer, starting with SAP S/4HANA for utilities.

The council will operate on a 'build once, deploy many' model, where IBM builds prioritized agents, and utilities validate results through structured feedback gates. This approach aims to accelerate time-to-value and deliver measurable value, with every agent invocation traceable to specific outcomes.

Chesapeake Utilities and the largest utility in the US are among the six founding members of the council, which expects to scale across industries in operations for finance, supply chain, and HR. The council's objectives include evaluating operating models, governance frameworks, and observability frameworks for responsible AI deployment, as well as co-defining and co-building AI agents.