March 4, 2026 — Böblingen and Düsseldorf, Germany METRO, a leading international wholesaler, announced a partnership with IBM iX to transform its digital marketing processes through a new Generative AI Content Workbench powered by IBM watsonx.ai. The collaboration aims to integrate data from multiple sources, enable personalized marketing campaigns, and accelerate growth in key markets.
METRO, which serves over 15 million customers worldwide through 622 stores in more than 30 countries and reported €32.5 billion in revenue for the 2024/25 financial year, partnered with IBM iX to centralize customer data management and develop a multichannel marketing platform. The initiative modernizes METRO’s MarTech landscape by networking ten data sources and implementing AI-driven tools for real-time processes, targeting increased turnover in large-scale markets and expansion in the Food Service Distribution sector.
The Generative AI Content Workbench
The centerpiece is the AI-supported Content Workbench, which allows marketing specialists to generate structured briefings, headlines, outlines, product descriptions, email content, and SEO texts in multiple languages and formats. Using pre-configured prompts based on focus topics, online trends, and events, it combines AI suggestions with human editorial input for quick, consistent, and target-group-specific content production across channels.
Executive Insights
Oliver Zimmer, Client Partner at IBM iX, stated:
With the new multichannel platform and centralised customer data management, we make it possible for METRO to deliver high-quality content quickly and in a target-group specific manner—across channels, in multiple languages and efficiently. This allows us to increase conversion rates and sustainably improve customer communication.
Emirhan Yasdiman, Global Lead SEO at METRO AG, added:
We were impressed by the speed and quality at which IBM iX implemented the AI workbench. It enables us to efficiently respond to the growing demand for high-quality content. This noticeably reduces our teams’ workload and is a real productivity boost.
Tino Hölters, Vice President Marketing at METRO AG, remarked:
IBM iX has become an indispensable partner in the digital transformation of our customer communication.
Expected Impacts
The partnership promises higher conversion rates, enhanced customer communication, reduced workload for teams, and a productivity boost. It supports METRO’s holistic digital strategy for personalization and standardized measurement of marketing activities, with plans for further AI expansion using watsonx.ai. The news was also noted among recent AI-powered martech releases.