IBM Unveils Next-Gen watsonx Orchestrate as Multi-Agent Control Plane at Think 2026 — Providence Cuts Hiring Time, 70% Accuracy Improvement

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IBM announced the next generation of watsonx Orchestrate (private preview) at Think 2026 on May 5, evolving it into an agentic control plane where organizations can deploy agents from any source with consistent policy enforcement. Providence healthcare used watsonx Orchestrate with IBM Consulting to implement an AI HR agent that improved job request accuracy by 70%. The announcement is part of IBM's broader strategy spanning multi-agent orchestration, real-time data via Confluent acquisition, automation through IBM Concert, and governance via IBM Sovereign Core.