Transforming Global Enablement One Interaction at a Time
With Ayal Steinberg, GM, Technical Community
Challenge
Delivering timely, relevant content at global scale.
Solution
Headquarters
Armonk, NY
Industry
Technology
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As GM of IBM’s Technical Community, Ayal Steinberg supports a global organization of more than 20,000 professionals. One-third are deeply technical, and nearly all engage directly with clients. For Steinberg, the measure of success is simple: “To arm the IBMer—whether in sales, technical, pre-sales, or post-sales delivery—with the right information and the right piece of knowledge at the right moment.”
But delivering on that promise at IBM’s scale was far from simple. The company operated in over 150 countries across a complex product portfolio. Client engagements happened constantly, yet enablement lagged behind. Steinberg described the traditional model as a “firehose”—multi-day immersive training events that sparked a temporary lift in knowledge, followed by a steep drop-off.
“We used to get everybody together for four days of immersive training,” he said. “But just as fast as the learning curve spikes, the forgetting curve kicks in.”
With sellers left to search across disjointed systems for what they needed, productivity suffered and consistency eroded. What IBM needed was not more information—but better delivery, smarter access, and continuous reinforcement.
“To arm the IBMer—whether in sales, technical, pre-sales, or post-sales delivery—with the right information and the right piece of knowledge at the right moment.”
Ayal Steinberg
GM, Technical Community, IBM
Steinberg envisioned a shift. Instead of flooding IBMers with information once a year, he wanted to create a steady, accessible stream of knowledge that could meet them at the moment of need.
“My shift is we go from the firehose to drinking from a water fountain,” he said.
That transformation came to life through Seismic.
Originally brought in to centralize content, Seismic quickly became IBM’s enablement engine. Sellers and technical teams could now access, personalize, and share curated content quickly and with confidence. Time spent searching dropped dramatically. Relevance increased. Consistency across geographies improved.
“Seismic is absolutely the glue that connects all of the things happening on the product side, and all of the things happening around customer wins and successes, to that point of interaction for the IBMer who’s right in front of the client.”
Steinberg also emphasized the importance of unified messaging. Using his now-signature metaphor, he described the ideal IBM experience as “ninety percent marching band.” The goal was to give every seller a consistent starting point while allowing for local context and modification.
Seismic didn’t just improve access—it brought clarity through data. For the first time, IBM could measure what content was actually being used and what was driving results. “We put things out, we learn, and we iterate, using data to make better decisions.”
Looking ahead, Steinberg sees even more opportunity in Seismic’s AI capabilities. While full deployment is still on the horizon, he’s particularly excited about using generative tools to scale content creation and simulation tools to enable immersive skill development.
“You can’t learn to play golf by watching videos. You have to swing the club,” he said. “AI is going to give you a coach or mentor you never had before. It’s going to let people practice and get better before they go out in the wild.”
“Seismic is absolutely the glue that connects all of the things happening on the product side, and all of the things happening around customer wins and successes, to that point of interaction for the IBMer who’s right in front of the client.”
Ayal Steinberg
GM, Technical Community, IBM
Ayal Steinberg
GM, Technical Community, IBM
