Feature parity for IBM watsonx Orchestrate - skill-based experience

Information: This topic is specific to the skill-based experience of watsonx Orchestrate. To elevate your productivity and streamline workflows, explore the new agentic experience — powered by advanced AI agents, dynamic multi-agent orchestration, and seamlessly integrated tools. To unlock the new agentic experience with context-aware decision making, see Exploring the agentic experience.

IBM watsonx Orchestrate can be deployed as a managed software as a service (SaaS) or installed on premises. As new features are added on each deployment's release cycle, it’s important that you understand which features are available in a deployment, so you can make informed decisions based on your business’s requirements.

Stay up to date with the latest features through the What's new in IBM® watsonx Orchestrate®.

The feature parity covers the following deployments:

AWS: for the IBM-managed instances that are provisioned as a service on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
IBM Cloud: for the IBM-managed instances that are provisioned as a service on IBM Cloud.
IBM Software Hub: for client-managed instances that are provisioned on IBM Software Hub 5.1.3. It is an on-premises deployment and uses a stationary version of the continuous-delivered and continuous-integrated SaaS deployment for each of its releases into IBM Software Hub.

Important: The availability of features might differ based on your IBM watsonx Orchestrate license. For more information, see Licenses and entitlements.

Feature parity by deployment

The feature parity in this topic is based on the features that you can handle through the watsonx Orchestrate's user interface. API capabilities might have their own support coverage for specific operations. For more information, see watsonx Orchestrate API documentation.

Each deployment receives a classification of support coverage based on how the deployment supports the features' capabilities that are detailed in this topic:

Full support: The deployment fully supports the feature and its capabilities.
Partial support: The deployment partially support the feature and its capabilities compared to other deployments. Partial support can occur when one or more of the following cases apply to the deployment:
- The deployment has the feature, but the feature implementation in the product differs from other deployments.
- The deployment has the feature, but users can apply specific implementations that might interfere on how the feature and its capabilities work.
- The deployment does not support all the features' capabilities that are listed in the table.
No support: The deployment does not support the feature and its capabilities compared to other deployments.

Refer to the following table for the feature classification on each deployment:

Table. The support coverage for features on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Chat	Full support	Full support	Partial support
Skill sets	Full support	Full support	Partial support
Monitor skills	Full support	No support	No support
Skill catalog	Full support	Full support	Partial support
AI agent configuration	Full support	Full support	Partial support
AI assistant builder	Full support	Partial support	Partial support
Skill studio	Full support	Full support	Partial support
Manage team	Full support	No support	No support

Parity by features' capabilities

Features can have their own capabilities, which might have limitations on what deployments support them. In the following sections, you can view the capabilities of each feature and if the deployments support these capabilities.

In the tables, you can find the following indications:

The green check icon indicates that the deployment supports the capability.
The green check with a warning icon indicates that the deployment supports the capability, but the capability might have specific implementations that differ from other deployments.
The red cross icon indicates that the deployment does not support the capability.

Chat within the product interface

The following sections refer to the feature parity for the chats within the product interface.

AI chat

Table. The support of the AI chat capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Using agents
Using apps and skills
Using AI assistants
Prompting to a default LLM

Note:Capabilities from the AI assistants that are added to the AI chat might not work. For more information, see the known issues for AI chat and Building AI assistants.

Legacy chat

Table. The support of the legacy chat capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Running skills

Skill sets

Table. The support of the Skill sets capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Manage skills per skill set			¹
Manage app connection with member credentials			¹
Manage app connection with team credentials			¹

¹ IBM Software Hub: If the instance of watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Software Hub 5.1.3 connects to an external vault, the credentials to connect to apps are managed in the vault.

Monitor skills

Table. The support of the Monitor skills capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Monitor team usage of skills
Monitor personal usage of skills

Skill catalog

Table. The support of the Skill catalog capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
View and search for prebuilt and custom apps and skills
Edit or delete app connection with member credentials			¹
Edit or delete app connection with team credentials			¹
Add or remove a skill from the chat

The availability of apps can change based on the deployment. For a list of the prebuilt apps and skills available for each deployment, see Apps availability per managed instances.

¹ IBM Software Hub: If the instance of watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Software Hub 5.1.3 connects to an external vault, the credentials to connect to apps are managed in the vault.
Users are able to connect to the app or edit the app connection to select a configured vault to provide the credentials.

AI agent configuration

Model settings

Table. The support of the Model settings capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Change the large language model of the AI agent
Update the parameters for tokens

System prompt

Table. The support of the System prompt capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Set system prompt

Starter prompts

Table. The support of the Starter prompts capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add, edit or delete a starter prompt

Agents

Table. The support of the Agents capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add external agents
Show or hide agent from the chat
Show or hide thinking from the chat
Edit agent description
Disconnect agent

AI assistants

Table. The support of the AI assistants capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add assistant from the AI assistant builder
Add external assistant from watsonx Assistant
Show or hide assistant from the chat
Edit assistant description
Disconnect assistant

Apps and skills

Table. The support of the Apps and skills capabilities on each deployment. The capabilities detailed in the table covers the AI chat experience only.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add and remove skills of an app from the AI chat
Show or hide apps from the AI chat
Edit routing description for a skill

Embed chat

Table. The support of the Embed chat capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Enable or disable security for embedded chat
Get the embedded code

AI assistant builder

Generative AI

Table. The support of the Generative AI capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Select a base model
Add prompt instructions
Enable or disable general-purpose answering for the base LLM
Enable or disable conversational search for the base LLM

Actions

Table. The support of the Actions capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add AI-guided action
Add Skill-based action
Add Custom-built action

Global settings

Table. The support of the Global settings capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Ask clarifying questions			¹
Change conversation topic and as confirmation questions
Use watsonx.ai for information gathering
Detect mentions of hate, abuse and profanity (HAP) in the content
Autocorrection for spelling mistakes
Customize formats for local and date and time
Set an algorithm version for the assistant training
Upload and download the assistant's actions

¹ IBM Software Hub: Customizing response modes for new actions is not available.

Evaluate

Table. The support of the Evaluate capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Evaluate response settings

Preview

Table. The support of the Preview capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Preview assistant

Publish

Table. The support of the Publish capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Publish content and revert publishing
View all versions
Download published version

Environments

Table. The support of the Environments capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add and preview environment
Get API details for the environment
Set up pre-message webhook
Set up post-message webhook
Set up log webhook
Set up audio webhook
Set up inactivity history
Enable session history
View the added channels, content and extensions for the environment

Analyze

Table. The support of the Analyze capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
View data for action completion
View data for conversational search responses
View data for recognized and unrecognized requests
View data about conversations with assistants

Integration with web chat

Table. The support of the Integration with Web chat capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Customize the chat UI
Edit the desktop and mobile launcher
Edit the chat home screen
Add live chat integration with eGain provider
Add live chat integration with Enghouse provider
Add live chat integration with Genesys SIP provider
Add live chat integration with Kustomer provider
Add live chat integration with NICE inContact provider
Add live chat integration with Oracle provider
Add live chat integration with Salesforce provider
Add live chat integration with Twilio provider
Add live chat integration with Zendesk provider
Add live chat integration with your own provider
Add suggestion to connect to agent
Enable web chat security
Get the code to embed the web chat

Integration with Phone

Table. The support of the Integration with Phone capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Connect to Genesys SIP provider
Connect to Genesys Audio Connector provider			¹
Connect to Twilio provider
Connect to NICE inContact provider
Bring your own phone provider
Manage phone numbers
Configure speech to text and text to Speech
Configure SIP trunking security options
Handle call and transfer failures

¹ IBM Software Hub: Connecting to Genesys Audio Connector and speech configuration might be available via patch.

Integration with other channels

Table. The support of the Integration with other channels capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add SMS as a channel and customize provider with IntelePeer and Twilio
Add and customize Facebook messenger as a channel
Add and customize Genesys Bot Connector as a channel			¹
Add and customize Slack as a channel
Add and customize Microsoft teams as a channel
Add and customize WhatsApp with Twilio as a channel

¹ IBM Software Hub: Genesys Bot Connector as a channel might be available via patch.

Search integration

Table. The support of the Search integration capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add search integration with Elasticsearch
Add search integration with Milvus
Add search integration with a custom service
Configure contextual awareness for conversational search
Configure the search for conversational search
Configure citations for conversational search
Configure the content for "No results" and "Connectivity issues"

Integration with other extensions

Table. The support of the Integration with other extensions capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add integration with Segment as an extension
Build a custom extension

Activity Log

Table. The support of the Activity Log capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
View the activity history for the assistant

Assistant settings

Table. The support of the Assistant settings capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
View the assistant details
Configure security certificates (SSL/TLS)
Get the details of assistant IDs and API data
Download or upload assistant data
Delete assistant

Skill studio

Projects

Table. The support of the Projects capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Workflow Admin
Create and import projects
Discovery tutorials and industry samples
Add Decision skills
Add Workflow skills
Add Generative AI skills
Add Document extractor skills
Edit project details
Manage collaborators
Export and delete projects
Publish projects
View tasks from projects and workflows status

Apps and skills

Table. The support of the Apps and skills capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Create skill flows
Repeat a skill within skill flows
Hide an input or output form from skill flows
Add custom input or output forms to skill flows
Add flow controls to skill flows			¹
Continue on error in skill flows
Add data mapping between fields in skill flows
Add data transformation for fields in skill flows
Filter data from skills in skill flows
Import skills from apps such as IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation SaaS and On Premises, UiPath, IBM Robotic Process Automation, IBM Business Automation Workflow as a service, and IBM Operational Decision Manager as a service
Import skills from OpenAPI files
Import skills by using the OpenAPI builder
Enhance, export, and delete custom skills
Auto-generate phrases
Add slot logic flow
Configure the schema of prebuilt skills
Configure app server and authentication type

¹ IBM Software Hub: For watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Software Hub 5.1.3, do-while loop might not be available for flow control.

Manage team

Table. The support of the Manage team capabilities on each deployment.
Feature	Amazon Web Services (AWS)	IBM Cloud	IBM Software Hub 5.1.3
Add and update a single member or in bulk		¹	²
Remove member		¹	²

¹ IBM Cloud: Team members are managed in the IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management interface.

² IBM Software Hub: Team members are managed in the IBM Software Hub interface.

Attention: With the introduction of the new agentic experience, prebuilt skills are no longer provisioned by default for existing tenants in the following data centers: London, Toronto, Tokyo and Sydney (IBM Cloud), and Singapore (AWS). If your tenant is in one of these regions and was created before this change, prebuilt skills can be made available upon request. To request specific prebuilt skills, raise a support ticket.

Parent topic:

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