Mashreq pilots IBM Bob to cut integration design time
Mashreq is piloting IBM's Bob platform to apply agentic AI to integration engineering, reporting early reductions of up to 60-70% in design and troubleshooting time.
The story in focus
Mashreq is piloting IBM Bob, IBM's enterprise AI software engineering platform, to apply agentic AI across its integration engineering work. IBM said early pilot results show up to a 60-70% reduction in time spent on integration design and troubleshooting, with a secure gateway handling about 4,000 AI-agent requests monthly.
- Mashreq is piloting IBM Bob across solution design, development, code review and production troubleshooting.
- IBM reports early pilot results of up to 60-70% less time on integration design and troubleshooting.
- A secure gateway manages about 4,000 AI-agent requests per month to banking, payments and enterprise systems.
Pilot scope and reported results
Mashreq, a Dubai-based financial institution, is piloting IBM Bob, IBM's enterprise AI software engineering platform, to test whether agentic AI can speed integration work. According to IBM's announcement, the pilot covers the software development lifecycle, from solution design and planning through development, code review and production troubleshooting.
IBM said tasks that previously took two to three hours of manual effort were completed within minutes during the pilot. Early results showed up to a 60-70% reduction in time spent on integration design and troubleshooting, IBM said, alongside increased developer productivity through AI-assisted decision-making. These figures describe pilot observations rather than a full production rollout.
Integration platform and agent gateway
Mashreq's integration platform processes an average of 650 transactions per second across digital channels, payments and enterprise systems, IBM said. The bank is modernizing that platform with IBM and GBM using cloud-native technologies including IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, Red Hat OpenShift and Confluent.
Mashreq is also using IBM Context Forge, built on the Model Context Protocol, to give AI agents secure access to integration knowledge, API specifications, architecture standards and operational context. Through a secure gateway, the bank manages about 4,000 AI-agent requests per month to connected systems. Mashreq said it is exploring a future on-premises deployment of IBM Bob for mission-critical use cases that may require locally hosted models for data residency and regulatory needs.
Did Mashreq report a full production deployment of IBM Bob?
No. Mashreq is piloting IBM Bob, and IBM described the 60-70% time reduction as early pilot results. An on-premises deployment is only under exploration.
Sources & further reading
- Mashreq Pilots IBM Bob to Advance Agentic AI for Integration Engineering ↗mea.newsroom.ibm.com
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