What's new in IBM® watsonx Orchestrate®

Conversational search analytics

You can now analyze the performance of your conversational search by using conversational search analytics. For more information, see Conversational search analytics.

Enhancement in analytics conversations

Your AI assistant is now enhanced to provide history of conversations by specifically indicating the different types of actions, search, dialog, Conversational search, and intents. For more information, see Review customer conversations.

Beta preview: Using skills through API

Now you can use skills through the API. With the watsonx Orchestrate API, you can run custom skills and automations outside the watsonx Orchestrate. For more information about authentication and the methods that are available, see Using skills through the watsonx Orchestrate API.

Beta preview: Customizing starter prompts for the chat

Customize starter prompts to help people to get started on specific use cases. Learn more about this customization and how to write effective starter prompts in Customizing the starter prompts.

Adding document processing activities to the workflow

Add two new document processing activities to the workflow in the Automation builder: "Utility bill extraction" and "Document review".

When the builder adds a "Utility bill extraction" activity to the workflow, it's possible to map variables to the expected input and output and set extraction rules to determine when to mark a document as needing review.

When a review of the document is needed, the builder adds a "Document review" activity to a decision loop.

See all the necessary configurations for the document processing activities in the workflow in the Document processing content.

Deleting automation components

Builders can now delete automation components (decisions, workflows, and generative AI). For more information, see Creating decisions, Creating workflows, and Creating generative AI components.

Apps available for IBM® watsonx Orchestrate® on IBM Cloud

Starting from this release, all prebuilt apps and their skills on watsonx Orchestrate are also available on the IBM Cloud deployment.

For the list of the apps available, see Apps availability per managed instances.

More apps and skills

This release adds new skills to the skill catalog. See the list of new skills per app:

• Google Calendar

  • Skills
    • Add a calendar to google calendar list
    • Remove a calendar from google calendar list
    • Get all calendars from google calendar list
    • Update calendar properties in google calendar list
    • Check the availability
    • Create a calendar
    • Delete a calendar
    • Create a calendar sharing
    • Delete a calendar sharing
    • Get all calendar sharing
    • Update a calendar sharing
    • Get a calendar
    • Update a calendar
    • Create an event
    • Delete an event
    • Get all events
      
      

• Google Drive

  • Skills
    • Get all comments
    • Create a comment
    • Get a file's comments
    • Get all files
    • Upload a file
    • Get file content
    • Get information about the file
    • Get all folders
    • Create a folder
    • Get all folder items
    • Create a permission
    • Get all permissions
    • Create a reply
    • Get all replies of a comment
    • Get all revisions
      
      

• Microsoft Teams

  • Skills
    • Create an event
    • Create online meeting
    • Delete online meeting
    • Delete an event
    • Get all online meeting
    • Get all call transcripts by meeting ID
    • Get all events
    • Get transcript by transcript ID
    • Update an event
    • Update an online meeting
      
      

Other enhancements and changes

The following table details the enhancements that are delivered in this release and the user role that is affected by the enhancement.

The following table details the fixes that are delivered in this release and the user role that is affected by the fix:

Documentation updates

See the updates in the watsonx Orchestrate documentation and other contents for this release.

New sections

• Using skills through the watsonx Orchestrate API: Learn how to use custom skills and skills from workflows and decisions through the API.

• Deploying for phone: Learn how to configure phone integration as a deployment channel for AI assistants.

Updated sections

• The Apps availability per managed instances section was updated with the apps that are available for watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud from this release.

• The Events for credentials section was updated with new events that are generated for actions that are made with credentials.

• The Skill IDs of prebuilt apps section was updated with the list of skill IDs of the new skills for this release.

• The Your team section has a new topic about membership and collaboration on watsonx Orchestrate.

• The Known issues and limitations topic adds entries for the following section:

  • Prebuilt apps and skills

    • IBM Cloud Availability of prebuilt apps and skills
    • IBM Cloud Connecting to the Salesforce Account Engagement app

  • Skill flow

    • The Cancel option in a skill flow
    • Updating filters while running a skill flow

Contextual awareness in conversational search

Choose the type of conversational search based on the context using contextual awareness. You can set your assistants to either use the current user input or use the entire conversation history to retrieve better responses for the user inputs. For more information, see Contextual awareness.

Configuring SSL certificates for AI assistants

You are now able to configure SSL certificates for an AI assistant to secure search integrations, custom extensions, skill-based actions, and webhooks. For more information, see Configuring Security certificates.

Intelligent information gathering in the AI assistant builder

This release brings an improvement of the accuracy for information gathering in custom-built and skill-based actions in the AI assistant builder.

Documentation updates

See the updates in the watsonx Orchestrate documentation and other contents for this release.

New sections

• The Licenses and entitlements for watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud® section gives information about licenses and entitlements for watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud®.

• The WageScape section provides the instructions to connect to WageScape and details on how to configure the connection.

• The Sample prompts section gives sample prompts for users to try specific types of outputs in the watsonx Orchestrate Beta chat.

Updated sections

• The IBM Document Processing section has updates in the connection details and provides more information on the technical parameters that are required by some skills of this app.

• The Using the watsonx Orchestrate Beta chat section was improved to disclose on the chat capabilities.

• The Adding AI assistants to the watsonx Orchestrate chat section has updates on the requirements that users need to meet to add AI assistants to the watsonx Orchestrate chat.

• The Known issues and limitations topic adds entries for the following section:

  • Building skills
    • The requestBody property is not supported for OpenAPI skills based on the GET method
      
      

Introducing watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud®

IBM® watsonx Orchestrate®, now available on IBM Cloud, offers businesses a powerful, scalable, and secure solution for automating and optimizing their business processes. Key benefits of deploying this service on IBM Cloud include global reach, optimized performance, advanced security, and expert support. By choosing watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud, businesses can streamline their operations, make informed decisions with AI-powered insights, and drive growth in a secure and scalable environment.

Documentation updates

See the updates in the watsonx Orchestrate documentation and other contents for this release.

The IBM watsonx Orchestrate documentation pages are labeled with the appropriate tag for information that applies exclusively for instances that are provisioned as a service on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or IBM Cloud, or for instances that are provisioned on IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

New sections

• The Managing IAM access for IBM watsonx Orchestrate section describes how to manage access to your IBM watsonx Orchestrate service by using IAM roles and policies.

• The IBM watsonx Orchestrate architecture and workload isolation section gives an overview of the architecture of IBM watsonx Orchestrate service on IBM Cloud and how it enables workload isolation for secure and efficient data processing.

• The Securing your data in IBM watsonx Orchestrate section gives an overview of the security measures available in IBM watsonx Orchestrate to encrypt and storage data.

• The Activity tracking events for IBM watsonx Orchestrate section gives an overview of the activity tracking events available in IBM watsonx Orchestrate, which you can use to monitor and audit user activity in your service.

• The Understanding high availability section provides more information about high availability features that are available in watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud.

• The Understanding disaster recovery section provides more information about business continuity and disaster recovery features that are available in watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud.

• The Apps availability per managed instances section contains a table with apps that are available on IBM watsonx Orchestrate separated by the availability-managed instances.

Updated sections

• The Logging in to watsonx Orchestrate on IBM Cloud section shows how to provision and launch the watsonx Orchestrate service on IBM Cloud.

• The Known issues and limitations topic adds entries for the following sections:

  • Building skills

    • Skill with permission specification is appearing in personal and team skill set
      
      

  • Generic issues

    • watsonx Orchestrate page is redirected to the IBM Cloud resources page
    • Error when switching pages
      
      

  • Orchestrate chat

    • Next best action in skill flows
      
      

  • Skill flow

    • Editing imported skill flow