According to IDC's predictions for 2021, "By 2026, 85% of companies will combine human expertise with AI, ML, NLP, and pattern recognition to enhance forecasting across the organization, making workers 25% more productive and effective. Technologies such as machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, pattern recognition, and knowledge graphs are producing increasingly accurate and context-aware insights, predictions, and recommendations.".

Project Wisdom—built on AI-based models derived from IBM's AI for Code effort—works by allowing the user to input a command as a simple English phrase. It then analyzes the phrase and constructs the requested automation workflow, which is delivered as an Ansible Playbook that can be used to automate any number of IT tasks. Unlike other AI-powered coding tools, Project Wisdom doesn't focus on application development, but rather on addressing the increasing complexity of enterprise IT as hybrid cloud adoption grows.

From human reading to human interaction
Becoming an automation expert requires significant effort and resources over time, with a steep learning curve for navigating various domains. The Wisdom project aims to bridge the gap between Ansible's YAML code and human language, enabling users to generate syntactically correct and functional automation content using simple English.

It could allow a systems administrator who typically works on-premises to reach other domains to build, configure, and operate in different environments using natural language to generate playbook instructions. A developer who knows how to build an application but lacks the skills to provision it on a new cloud platform could use Project Wisdom to expand their expertise in these new areas to help transform the business. New employees across all departments could immediately generate content while continuing to build foundational knowledge, without the constraints of traditional teaching models.

Driving open source innovation through collaboration
While the power of AI in enterprise IT is undeniable, community collaboration, combined with the expertise of Red Hat and IBM, will be key to delivering an AI/ML model that aligns with core open-source technology principles. Red Hat has over two decades of experience collaborating on community projects and protecting open-source licenses in defense of free software. Project Wisdom, and its underlying AI model, is an extension of this commitment to keeping all aspects of the codebase open and transparent to the community.