The Elevator Pitch for This Blog Post: IBM Watson, otherwise known as watsonx, has long been a solid choice for A.I. services, even before the launch of ChatGPT. However, the generative-A.I. boom has made tools like ChatGPT an emerging favorite among business owners.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- IBM’s watsonx A.I. suite is enterprise-focused, offering custom A.I. models (including generative A.I.).
- Governance is another big draw of IBM’s A.I., as there is a strong focus on
- OpenAI has been continually focusing on tailoring ChatGPT toward businesses, even shutting down high-profile services like the video generator Sora to focus on its enterprise A.I..
- Bigger businesses may be better off springing for watsonx because of IBM’s proven history of offering effective A.I. solutions along with the consistently strong reviews it is still earning in a crowded A.I. market.
- Small business owners would be better off choosing ChatGPT and custom-tailoring it to their use case, because watsonx tends to be focused for larger-scale enterprise clients in highly regulated industries (think finance, insurance, and governments).
The Significance for Business Owners
If you are a business owner who is relatively new to A.I., it is understandable that tools like Claude and ChatGPT first come to mind.
However, IBM has been in the A.I. game for a while and has been offering business-to-business A.I. solutions for years before the public debut of ChatGPT in November of 2022.
In fact, IBM has been earning high marks for its entreprise-grade watsonx suite of A.I. applications.
A.I. Tools versus A.I. Infrastructure
If you are business owner considering ChatGPT vs. watsonx, the question to ask is whether you are looking more for an A.I. tool or a dedicated full-stack A.I. infrastructure.
Being able to fine-tune models of your choosing (including open-source models like Meta’s Llama), going beyond just customization of a given model, is a major draw of IBM.
Governance across the entire A.I. lifecycle is another perk of going with IBM.
ChatGPT certainly offers data controls and business-friendly features, but IBM likely has OpenAI beat here.
ChatGPT will function more like a useful app for your business to use, whereas Watsonx is a dedicated A.I. platform with models, governance structures, and more across a full stack.
If you require data sovereignty and control, especially for on-premise data. Users will also have a data lakehouse for drawing in data from multiple sources, whether that is on-premise or in a cloud, to train the A.I..
Do You Need Generative A.I., or Classic A.I. and M.L.?
There is more to A.I. than just generative A.I. like ChatGPT, which generates text, images, code, and other outputs based on training data and other sources it is connected to.
Users of watsonx can get generative A.I. as well as traditional machine-learning and A.I. solutions. Use cases for those pipelines are forecasting, risk-scoring, and other straightforwardly predictive platforms.
ChatGPT, on the other hand, is focused on generative A.I.. For chatting, content, and coding, it is sufficient, but the reality is that traditional A.I. and M.L. applications can be stronger than generative A.I. in some cases.
The Enterprise Question
Is your business a large enterprise? Is your business in a highly regulated industry?
If the answer to either of these questions is no, then you may be able to find what you are looking for with ChatGPT.
The greater data controls that IBM affords users is a major perk for compliance-conscious businesses.
Plus, the offering of a dedicated full-stack A.I. infrastructure makes watsonx a clear choice for enterprise clients, which typically need strong data controls and governance in IT contexts.
Enterprises also tend to have complex legacy IT environments. IBM specifically designed watsonx for ready integrations with such environments, so the transition could be smoother than introducing ChatGPT.
Watson vs. ChatGPT Cost
IBM watsonx enterprise deals are usually at custom-quote prices and so is ChatGPT Enterprise.
ChatGPT is typically less expensive, with the price hike to IBM justifiable because of the deeper customization and governance controls as well as broader A.I. applications.
ChatGPT Team (good for small businesses) and ChatGPT Pro can be an affordable alternative for business owners.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway from This Blog Post
Overall, if you are a business owner that needs generative A.I. and your business is not enterprise-level, then ChatGPT may be the way to go here.
If you are on the enterprise level and strong data governance is essential, then look into watsonx.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
- For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
- IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
- Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
- How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
- The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
GO Deeper on Substack!
If you want to get a bigger-picture view on where A.I. is and is headed, then check out our Substack to learn about emerging and dominant themes in the A.I. industry that affect all kinds of businesses!
