Glossary Term

watsonx

IBM's AI and data platform, including conversational assistants, foundation models, and governance tooling, that can connect to IBM i data without modifying the underlying applications.

Definition

watsonx is IBM's platform for building and governing AI, made up of assistants for conversational interfaces, foundation models for generative tasks, and watsonx.governance for monitoring and auditability. For IBM i shops, the relevant piece is usually watsonx assistants connecting to existing data through APIs, Db2 connectors, and event streams.

Because watsonx reaches applications through those integration points rather than through source code changes, RPG and COBOL programs, Db2 for i databases, and other IBM i systems stay untouched while watsonx reads, summarizes, and helps act on the data they produce.

Example

A watsonx assistant can answer "why are shipments delayed" by querying Db2 for i directly, giving a plain-language answer without anyone writing a query or touching the RPG program that manages shipments.