IBM led some of the 20th century’s most pioneering projects in artificial intelligence and supercomputing, including the development of the Deep Blue chess-playing system that became the first to defeat reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, in 1997. Then, in 2010, the IBM Watson AI system for answering questions in natural language was put to the test on the US TV quiz show Jeopardy and won top prize.

But, in the years that followed, a failure to follow through on these projects meant the company fell behind. Now, chief executive Arvind Krishna is seeking ways to use AI to deliver labour-saving solutions to large enterprises, as well as making powerful and error-free quantum computers a reality.

Here, he tells the FT’s west-coast editor, Richard Waters. why IBM struggled to turn its Watson breakthroughs into a business success, and how he is trying to capitalise on a new era in AI.