Streamlining AI and ML Operations at IBM with BJ Adesoji and Ryan Yackel

The orchestration layer is foundational to building robust AI- and ML-powered data pipelines, especially in complex hybrid enterprise environments. IBM’s partnership with Astronomer reflects a strategic alignment to simplify and scale Airflow-based workflows across industries.

In this episode, we’re joined by IBM’s Senior Product Manager, BJ Adesoji, and GTM PM and Growth Leader, Ryan Yackel. We discuss how IBM customers are using Airflow in production, the challenges they face at scale and what the new IBM–Astronomer collaboration unlocks.

Key Takeaways:

(03:09) The growing importance of orchestration tools in enterprise environments.

(04:48) How organizations are expanding orchestration beyond traditional use cases.

(05:24) Common patterns across industries adopting orchestration platforms.

(07:16) Why orchestration is essential for supporting business-critical workloads.

(10:00) The role of orchestration in compliance and regulatory processes.

(13:02) Challenges enterprises face when managing orchestration infrastructure.

(14:58) Opportunities to simplify and centralize orchestration at scale.

(19:11) The value of integrating orchestration with broader data toolchains.

(20:54) How AI is shaping the future of orchestrated data workflows.

Resources Mentioned:

BJ Adesoji

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bj-soji/

Ryan Yackel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanyackel/

IBM | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/databand-ai/

IBM Databand

https://www.ibm.com/products/databand

IBM DataStage

https://www.ibm.com/products/datastage

IBM watsonx.governance

https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-governance

IBM Knowledge Catalog

https://www.ibm.com/products/knowledge-catalog

Apache Airflow

https://airflow.apache.org/

watsonx Orchestrate

ht