2025: The Year Open, Agentic AI Took Center Stage
IBM, Monday, December 29th, 2025
From agentic capabilities in experimental AI models to real-world deployment, 2025 was the year open, agentic AI captured attention. For IBM, this evolution is embodied in BeeAI and Agent Stack, two open-source initiatives that have reshaped how enterprises build and deploy intelligent agents.
BeeAI began as an internal project in early 2024, when IBM Research anticipated a pivotal shift toward agentic systems. 'We started working on that as 2024 ramped up and it feels all very quaint now,' said Kate Blair, Director of Incubation and Technology Experiences at IBM Research, in an interview with IBM Think. 'But we were focused on how end users might consume agents.'
Initially, the team explored conversational systems and launched an open beta called BeeAI for Business. But the momentum wasn't right. The team pivoted, open-sourced BeeAI and focused on developers.