IBM Has Successful AI Kickstarting Effort

Worked on several IBM initiated projects, was unaware of this particular effort.  A little unlcear how success is measured.  Though they say data science at first later AI is included.  Good general approach, which is not much different than many other IBM 'top down' efforts.

IBM’s ‘elite’ data science squad has kickstarted AI for more than 100 companies
By   Matt Marshall

Last year, IBM announced a Data Science Elite team whose only job is to help big enterprise companies push their first AI models into production.

Now, more than a year after the program’s launch, Rob Thomas, the IBM executive overseeing the AI SWAT team, reports that it has been a “huge success.” The team has increased from 30 data scientists to 100, and there are plans to grow significantly next year. “We hire them wherever we can, actually,” Thomas said, noting that these data scientists operate all over the world. (Thomas told VentureBeat about this elite team as part of a wider-ranging interview.)  .... "