No one innovates alone: How open source and partner ecosystems are unlocking AI for enterprises

It’s 2025, and the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) is inescapable. Among other things, chatbots are handling customer service requests, marketing teams are using AI to personalize campaigns at scale and security analysts are leveraging machine learning to detect fraud almost before it happens. But for all the excitement, many enterprises are still asking the same fundamental question: How do we actually make AI work for our business?

Here’s a confession: when my role at Red Hat shifted from focusing on Linux operating systems and infrastructure–Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)–to platforms explicitly built to run and scale AI workloads–RHEL AI and Red Hat OpenShift AI–I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Sure, I could see the potential—AI-powered developer assistants speeding up coding tasks, AI-driven logistics optimizing supply chains and knowledgebase search tools transforming how employees access internal information. But I kept coming back to the bigger picture: Where should businesses even start? Which AI use cases drive the most business value? And how do they navigate real-world challenges—legacy software, skills gaps, budgets—and move from experimentation to implementation?

AI use cases: Not sure how AI can help your organization? Start here

If I had these questions, I knew others did too. Let’s explore what it really means to bring AI into the enterprise—beyond the buzzwords—and develop practical, high-impact AI applications.

The rise of AI

We've all played around with impressive large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, and we've all heard about their high costs. Estimates put training and running these models in the millions of dollars. Only a handful of companies (think: Meta, Google, Microsoft) have access to the massive datasets and high-performance hardware needed to train and run these models at scale for use in their applications. For most enterprises, these barriers to entry can feel insurmountable.

But here’s the thing: the open source software community—and its broader ecosystem of contributors, technology partners and enterprises—has been tackling challenges like this long before AI hit the headlinese. No single organization can solve AI’s challenges alone—it takes collaboration across industries, from open source developers building foundational tools to cloud providers offering scalable infrastructure to enterprises shaping real-world AI applications.

If enterprises want to implement AI without prohibitive costs or vendor lock-in, open source is the key.

Why is open source vital to the future of AI?

Open source software isn’t just about sharing code—it’s about solving problems collaboratively, across industries and organizations. At Red Hat, we see open source as more than a development model—it’s a framework for thinking, learning and innovating together. Since the early days of the internet, open source projects have democratized access to technology and helped break down barriers to innovation. AI is no exception.

An open source approach means flexibility, interoperability and access to a global innovation community. From hyperscalers to AI startups, Red Hat’s ecosystem partners benefit from the open source development model because it allows for co-creation, sharing and collaboration rather than vendor dependence.

Open source in action

A prime example of the power of open source is InstructLab, a community-driven AI project initially developed by Red Hat and IBM. InstructLab simplifies AI model fine-tuning by allowing subject matter experts—not just data scientists—to refine AI models more easily. Instead of requiring deep machine learning expertise and massive infrastructure, enterprises can create smaller, purpose-built AI models using their own data and domain knowledge.

A freely available community version of InstructLab allows anyone to experiment, while a supported version is integrated into RHEL AI for organizations that need enterprise-grade stability. 

InstructLab embodies what makes open source so powerful—it makes AI more accessible, flexible and collaborative and helps businesses use AI rather than just talk about it.

The power of Red Hat partners

Many organizations struggle to implement AI at scale even with the right tools. A little research confirmed what I suspected—many businesses simply lack the in-house expertise to develop, deploy and manage AI solutions. Even with open source projects lowering technical barriers, enterprises still face challenges in implementation, from understanding where AI fits into their business strategy to fine-tuning models for real-world applications.

The good news? No one innovates alone. Open source thrives on collaboration and enterprise AI reaches its full potential through strong partner ecosystems that unite technology, expertise and support. Red Hat’s partner ecosystem brings together leading hardware vendors, cloud providers and system integrators to make AI adoption seamless. Whether it’s leveraging GPUs for optimized AI performance, integrating with AI acceleration tools or deploying AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments, our partners help businesses implement AI in ways that fit their needs while avoiding the lock-in of proprietary platforms.

Beyond the technology, we also collaborate with our partners to provide extensive consulting and training services, helping teams confidently develop, deploy, manage, scale and troubleshoot AI applications.

Red Hat AI Services: Navigate the AI journey with Red Hat

Final thoughts

AI is evolving rapidly, but one thing remains clear: the future won’t be built in isolation. The most transformative innovations will come from collaboration across open source communities, technology partners and enterprises solving real-world challenges together.

At Red Hat, we’re committed to making AI more accessible, scalable, and enterprise-ready—not by working in a silo, but by fostering a partner ecosystem built on an open source foundation where no one innovates alone.

Whether you’re just getting started or scaling your AI initiatives, you don’t have to do it alone. The Red Hat Partner Ecosystem Catalog connects you with the tools, expertise and collaborators to help you move forward with confidence. Take the next step and see what’s possible when you have the right partners by your side.