What's new and changed in Decision Optimization

Decision Optimization updates can include new features and fixes. Releases are listed in reverse chronological order so that the latest release is at the beginning of the topic.

You can see a list of the new features for the platform and all of the services at What's new in IBM Software Hub.

IBM Cloud Pak for Data Version 5.2.0

A new version of Decision Optimization was released in June 2025.

This release includes the following changes:

New features
This release of Decision Optimization includes the following features:
Use code snippets to build Decision Optimization experiments faster
When you build Decision Optimization models in the experiment UI, you can now use code snippets for Python DOcplex or OPL models. Using code snippets can make model building faster, because you can add and edit code without having to create all the lines of code.

For more information, see Code snippets for building models.

Include Python packages in Decision Optimization experiments
You can now use PIP requirements.txt files to define custom packages in Python DOcplex models in Decision Optimization experiments. Add library files and packages to your DOcplex model by creating a Python extension in the Decision Optimization experiment UI, and then adding the packages to your PIP requirements.txt file. The packages that are listed in the requirements.txt file are also used when you deploy your model.

For more information, see Changing default environments and adding Python libraries.

Updates
The following updates were introduced in this release:
Python 3.12 is now available
In addition to Python 3.11, you can now use Python 3.12 in your Decision Optimization environment to run and deploy Decision Optimization models that are formulated in DOcplex in Decision Optimization experiments. Modeling Assistant models also use Python because DOcplex code is generated when models are run or deployed.

For more information, see Changing default environments and Changing Python verson for an existing deployed mode using the REST API.

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release
For a list of customer-reported issues that were fixed in this release, see the Fix List for IBM Cloud Pak® for Data on the IBM Support website.
Deprecated features
The following features were deprecated in this release:
YAML code is deprecated in Decision Optimization experiments
Instead of using YAML code to define custom packages in Python DOcplex models in Decision Optimization experiments, you can now use PIP requirements.txt files.

For more information, see Changing default environments and adding Python libraries.