San Francisco, CA — February 24, 2026 — Leads & Copy — IBM and Deepgram have announced a collaboration to integrate Deepgram’s speech-to-text and text-to-speech capabilities into IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate generative AI solution.
IBM will embed Deepgram’s capabilities into watsonx Orchestrate to address client needs for high-performance, enterprise-grade transcription and real-time captioning. The collaboration makes Deepgram IBM’s first voice partner, bringing voice AI technology to automate operations and meet the demand for conversational AI, including speech-to-text voice recognition so users can interact with digital agents using natural speech.
Many organizations are adopting AI-powered speech-to-text systems to automate transcription while handling real-world audio conditions, including background noise, diverse accents, and real-life dialog. The integration addresses these challenges by offering a wider range of languages and dialects, including Arabic and Indian variants, along with voices that reflect regional accents. It also adds options for custom tuning, real-time captioning and natural-sounding speech.
According to the release, these technologies open possibilities for enhanced automated customer care and support, call analysis, and voice-driven data entry in fields like healthcare and finance.
Deepgram CEO and Co-Founder Scott Stephenson said that voice is rapidly becoming the default interface between humans and technology, and enterprise deployments require a real-time platform that is accurate, low latency, and reliable at scale. He added that by embedding Deepgram inside watsonx Orchestrate Agent Builder, IBM clients can build voice agents and voice-enabled workflows on top of a real-time foundation.
IBM Vice President of AI Technology Partnerships Nick Holda said that the watsonx Orchestrate integration powered by Deepgram APIs introduces new speech recognition and transcription capabilities to IBM clients, refining and modernizing their operations. He added that the collaboration aims to help enterprise organizations accelerate their AI initiatives and reinforces IBM’s open ecosystem, bringing choice and cutting-edge voice technology to partners and customers.
The companies say that voice interfaces are quickly becoming essential for enterprise AI, and the collaboration strengthens IBM’s role in delivering modern, flexible solutions to its clients. For Deepgram, it expands access to new customers and reinforces its position as a reliable, real-time voice platform built for large-scale use.
Deepgram’s Voice AI platform offers speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and full speech-to-speech (STS) capabilities powered by its enterprise-grade runtime. The company says that more than 200,000 developers build with Deepgram’s voice-native foundational models, accessed through cloud APIs or as self-hosted / on-premises APIs, due to its accuracy, low latency, and pricing.
The company’s customers include technology ISVs building voice products or platforms, co-sell partners working with large enterprises, and enterprises solving internal use cases. Deepgram says it has processed over 50,000 years of audio and transcribed over 1 trillion words.
IBM is a provider of hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. The company says it helps clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations.
IBM’s innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to clients.
Source: IBM
