Demystifying AI on IBM Z: How IBM z17, Telum II, and Spyre Are Powering the Next Era of Enterprise Computing
By Devonte’ Hawkins – IBM Z Data & AI Technical Specialist
The Mainframe Enters the AI Era
From the very beginning, IBM Z has been at the heart of the world’s most mission-critical transactions — powering your banking apps, processing airline reservations, managing retail systems, and keeping global logistics moving. Now, with the launch of the IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5, the mainframe is stepping confidently into the AI era, blending decades of reliability with the intelligence and adaptability of modern AI technologies. This isn’t just an upgrade — it’s a transformation. IBM Z and LinxONE is redefining what enterprise computing looks like in a world where AI isn’t an option; it’s an expectation.
The Power Behind z17: Telum II Processor
At the heart of IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5 lies the Telum II processor, a 5nm, 5.5GHz marvel with 8 cores, 40% more cache, and 43 billion transistors. It introduces an on-chip Data Processing Unit (DPU) — a first of its kind in mainframe history — that boosts I/O performance while reducing latency and power consumption by up to 70% for I/O management. Telum II continues IBM’s AI-first strategy with an integrated 2nd-generation AI accelerator, capable of performing inferencing directly on-chip. That means AI can happen where your data lives, not miles away in the cloud. Imagine fraud detection, anomaly scoring, or real-time risk analysis — all happening in-transaction, at the speed of business.
Introducing the IBM Spyre Accelerator
Arriving later in 4Q 2025, the IBM Spyre Accelerator extends this power even further. Each adapter card includes 32 GenAI-ready cores and supports up to 48 adapter cards per system, allowing enterprises to scale AI workloads directly on IBM Z with massive parallelism. Spyre isn’t just a hardware innovation — it’s part of IBM’s vision to create a hybrid AI architecture that connects on-prem, cloud, and mainframe data into one intelligent ecosystem. With Spyre, organizations can unlock large language models (LLMs), inference at scale, and advanced generative AI applications — securely and efficiently — all within the IBM Z environment.
AI on Z: Strategy and Impact
IBM’s AI on Z strategy is centered around one simple idea: bring AI to the data, not data to the AI. By enabling predictive and generative AI directly on-platform, organizations can modernize applications, automate operations, and gain new insights without compromising security or compliance. Predictive AI on Z enables real-time analytics and in-transaction fraud detection. Generative AI on Z enhances productivity through tools like watsonx Code Assistant for Z, watsonx Assistant, and future AI agents that support code modernization, IT operations, and business processes. Together, these capabilities make IBM Z the foundation for trusted, explainable, and high-performance AI in regulated industries.
Real-World Use Cases
Here are just a few examples of AI on Z in action:
🏦 Real-Time Fraud Detection
Financial institutions can now run machine learning models directly alongside payment applications on IBM Z, achieving 100% real-time scoring with <5ms latency for cross-border transactions.
🛡️ Insurance Product Recommendations
Using Db2 13 SQL Data Insights, insurers can run neural network-powered semantic queries to predict quote conversion rates — increasing sales by over 10% while reducing time-to-insight from hours to seconds.
🚚 Generative AI for Logistics and Compliance
Through watsonx.data and LLM integration, customs agencies and logistics companies can use AI to analyze images, flag suspicious cargo, and summarize complex shipping documentation automatically.
Each of these examples shows how AI on Z doesn’t replace existing systems — it amplifies them.
Getting Started with AI on IBM Z
Ready to dive deeper? IBM offers a range of resources to help you explore AI on Z — whether you’re a student, developer, or enterprise architect:
AI on Z Webpage: https://www.ibm.com/products/z/artificial-intelligence
IBV Study: AI Drives Mainframe Innovation: https://www.ibm.com/think/insights/ai-drives-mainframe-innovation
IBM z17 Webpage: https://www.ibm.com/products/z17
IBM z17 3D Interactive Tour: https://www.ibm.com/demos/it-infrastructure/demo360.html#20/2000;C1999