Mashreq pilots IBM AI platform to accelerate software engineering and digital banking

Mashreq is piloting IBM’s enterprise AI-powered software engineering platform, IBM Bob, to improve integration engineering, accelerate software delivery and increase developer productivity as the UAE bank explores the use of agentic AI, according to an announcement by IBM.

Mashreq’s integration platform supports its digital banking ecosystem, connecting channels, applications, partners and markets.

The system supports digital banking, instant payments, cross-border transactions and API-driven services, processing an average of 650 transactions per second across digital channels, payments and enterprise systems.

Through the pilot, Mashreq is assessing how agentic AI can support software development, from solution design and planning to coding, code reviews and production troubleshooting.

Tasks that once took two to three hours were completed in minutes, with early results showing a 60% to 70% reduction in time spent on integration design and troubleshooting.

“As we continue to advance our digital-first strategy, we are investing in technologies that help our engineering teams move faster while maintaining the resilience and quality our customers expect,” said Mohamed Abdel Razek, Group Head of Technology, Transformation and Information at Mashreq.

He added that the pilot is helping the bank evaluate how agentic AI could improve software engineering and operations across the enterprise.

Mashreq is working with IBM and GBM to modernize its integration platform using cloud-native technologies, including IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, Red Hat OpenShift and Confluent. The initiative aims to build scalable infrastructure for secure connectivity, real-time data movement and enterprise governance.

The bank is also using IBM Context Forge, based on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), to explore AI agent coordination across the integration lifecycle. The technology provides secure access to enterprise knowledge, API specifications, architecture standards and operational data.

Through a secure gateway, Mashreq manages around 4,000 monthly requests from AI agents to its digital banking, payments and enterprise systems, exploring applications in engineering decisions, code reviews, troubleshooting and operational analysis.

“Our vision is to create an intelligent engineering environment where AI agents can work alongside our teams to support design, code reviews and troubleshooting,” said Santosh Vaidya, Head of Payments and Digital Services at Mashreq.

Shukri Eid, VP and General Manager for IBM Gulf, Levant and Pakistan, said combining cloud-native infrastructure with agentic AI could help banks improve software development and operational efficiency.

Muralidharan Rajagopalan, Interim General Manager at GBM Dubai, said the collaboration aims to help engineering teams simplify complex integration work and create more capacity for innovation.

Mashreq is also exploring a potential on-premises deployment of IBM Bob for mission-critical applications that may require locally hosted AI models to meet data-residency and regulatory requirements.