AI-driven Integrated Planning: highlights from our webinar with IBM and ITWeb
AI-driven integrated planning was the focus of our 22 October 2026 webinar with IBM and ITWeb, where we looked at how AI is changing the way organisations forecast, plan and make decisions. Thank you to everyone who joined us live, and to everyone who sent in questions during the Q&A.
The session was opened and moderated by James Francis, writer and ITWeb Brainstorm contributor. Here is a short recap of what was covered.
Why traditional planning is running out of road
In his keynote, David V Albert, Global Business Partner Lead for IBM Business Analytics, started with a problem most finance teams will recognise. Planning is often spread across disconnected spreadsheets and point solutions, which leads to:
- Disconnected plans, with each department working from its own data
- Analytical silos, so there is no single version of the truth
- A lack of agility, because the process is slow, manual and hard to scale
- A lack of confidence, with IBM noting that around two thirds of decisions end up being based on intuition rather than data
At the same time, businesses face more complexity and less time to respond. Dave’s point was simple: integrated planning gives organisations the speed and agility to make more accurate decisions, and AI is now accelerating that shift.
How AI is redefining planning
Dave described the move from planning that is reactive, static and manually stitched together, to planning that is proactive, adaptive and orchestrated. In practice, that means:
- More accurate forecasting, by uncovering patterns that traditional methods can miss
- Natural, conversational interaction with planning data, rather than relying on a few expert analysts
- Planning teams moving from producing reports to acting as strategic advisors to the business
He also shared IDC’s forecast that the Enterprise Performance Management market will grow to $11.7 billion by 2029, which shows how much investment is flowing into this space.
AI built into IBM Planning Analytics
IBM Planning Analytics already includes a set of built-in AI features designed to save time and improve accuracy, including:
- AI forecasting to speed up the forecasting process and improve accuracy
- Outlier analysis to flag anomalies and explain them in plain language
- Explain cell to give a plain language summary of how any number was calculated
- Chart insights to summarise the key points and patterns in a chart
- Impact analysis to highlight the drivers behind performance
- Recommend a view to help users find the right data faster
Dave also looked ahead to agentic AI, where AI agents work towards a goal with limited supervision. IBM’s focus here covers three areas: putting planning data wherever people work (such as Outlook, Teams and mobile), giving modellers tools that amplify their expertise, and autonomous agents that can monitor variances, detect anomalies and suggest reforecast scenarios. Throughout, the TM1 engine stays at the centre, so AI removes friction without removing control.
Seeing it in action
Francois Kritzinger, Director at Venn Cubed, then brought the discussion to life with a live demonstration of the AI features in IBM Planning Analytics. Rather than talking about AI in theory, Francois showed how a finance user can work with the Planning Analytics AI Assistant and AI Forecasting in a real planning model: asking questions in plain language, getting instant explanations of the numbers, spotting outliers, and producing a forecast in a fraction of the time it would take manually.
The key takeaway from the demo was that these capabilities are not a separate project. They sit inside the planning environment that finance teams already use, so organisations can unlock more value from what they have today while laying the foundation for smarter, faster and more confident decisions.
What this means for finance and planning teams
For South African finance teams, the message from the session was clear: AI in planning is practical and available now. The organisations that benefit most will be the ones with a connected, well-structured planning foundation in place, because AI is only as good as the data and models it works with.
That is where Venn Cubed comes in. With 22 years of local planning experience and as an IBM Silver Partner, we help organisations get their FP&A foundation right and then make the most of the AI capabilities built into IBM Planning Analytics.
Thank you
A big thank you to David V Albert and IBM, to James Francis and the ITWeb team for hosting, and to Francois for a great demo. Most of all, thank you to everyone who attended.