IBM watsonx Assistant vs PolyAI
IBM watsonx Assistant
cloud.ibm.com
PolyAI
poly.aiSide by side
| Figure | IBM watsonx Assistant | PolyAI |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $140/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Enterprise AI Chatbots Software | 8.9 (#2) | 6.8 (#16) |
| Spec score · Conversational AI Platforms | 8.9 (#4) | 6.9 (#37) |
| Founded | 1911 | 2017 |
| Integrations | Available integrations include web chat, phone, Facebook Messenger, Genesys Bot Connector, Microsoft Teams, Slack, SMS, WhatsApp with Twilio, and Search. | PolyAI offers pre-built integrations, a self-serve Connect Portal, and open APIs; its integration catalog lists 130+ integrations. |
| Security | The service supports TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3, with TLS 1.3 as the default. | PolyAI lists SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications or compliance credentials on its security page. |
Plans
IBM watsonx Assistant
- LiteFree
- TrialFree
- Plus$140 a month
- Enterprise with data isolationPriced on request
In their own words
IBM watsonx Assistant
IBM watsonx Assistant builds branded chatbots for live conversations across devices, applications, and channels. It uses natural-language understanding and machine-learning models customized from customer data to answer in real time. Actions organize customer tasks into steps within a conversation, while a Watson Discovery integration can search corporate data collections for answers. Integrations include web chat, phone, Facebook Messenger, Genesys Bot Connector, Microsoft Teams, Slack, SMS, WhatsApp with Twilio, and Search. Web chat can pass conversations to live-agent integrations including Genesys Web Messenger, NICE CXone, Salesforce, and Zendesk. The assistant is available as a managed IBM Cloud service or on premises with IBM Cloud Pak for Data. Lite is free, and the free Trial lasts 30 days. Plus costs $140 a month for the first 1,000 monthly users; additional users cost $14 per 100 active users per month, and phone voice adds $9 per 100 users per month. The v2 API requires Plus or higher. IBM is upgrading eligible instances to watsonx Orchestrate; existing resources remain operational.