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Azure OpenAI vs IBM Watson Machine Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure OpenAI
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Watson Machine Learning
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Azure OpenAI is 11.0%, down from 20.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Watson Machine Learning is 1.8%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Rafael Keller - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates effective scheduling agents with responsive AI capabilities
I am using it to create agents to schedule appointments for clinics and professionals in general. It serves both small and major companies. The primary use case involves creating agents Its ability to understand and respond well to queries, including language translation for clients, is…
Anurag Mayank - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly efficient solution that delivers the desired results to its users
I had not considered how the solution could be improved because I was focused on how it was helping me to solve my issues. If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use. It would be beneficial to incorporate more AI into the solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I would rate it a nine out of ten."
"Its versatility makes it incredibly useful for technical problem-solving, content creation, data analytics, and more."
"OpenAI's models are more mature than Watson's. They offer a wider range of features and provide richer outputs."
"Generative AI or GenAI seems to be the best part of the solution."
"The document intelligence feature has significantly aided in our operations, facilitating the creation of descriptive content."
"We can use the solution to implement our tasks and models quickly."
"Azure OpenAI is very easy to use instead of AWS services."
"The product's initial setup phase was pretty easy."
"I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive."
"The solution is very valuable to our organization due to the fact that we can work on it as a workflow."
"It is has a lot of good features and we find the image classification very useful."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"It has improved self-service and customer satisfaction."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution's the cost and human labor savings."
"We can enable and change developer productivity with artificial intelligence-recommended code based on natural language input or exciting source code."
 

Cons

"There could be an ability to generate visual data, such as architecture diagrams."
"Azure OpenAI should use more specific sources like academic articles because sometimes the source can't be found."
"The main issue with Azure OpenAI is the inconsistency in output. We have a set template instruction, and it should generate within those parameters without any creativity because it's meant for regulatory authoring documents."
"Since we don't train the model on our data, it's a struggle to ensure OpenAI answers questions exclusively from our data. During user testing, we found ways to make the system provide answers from outside sources."
"The product features themselves are fine. However, with Microsoft scaling the service so much, the support structure needs to keep pace. When solving complex issues, the process of interacting with Microsoft can be quite time-consuming."
"Our customers are worried about data management, ethical, and security issues."
"The fine-tuning of models with the use of Azure OpenAI is an area with certain shortcomings currently, and it can be considered for improvement in the future."
"Sometimes, it gives answers in English, even when the request is in Polish."
"Honestly, I haven't seen any comparative report that has run the same data through two different artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities to get something out of it. I would love to see that."
"Scaling is limited in some use cases. They need to make it easier to expand in all aspects."
"In future releases, I would like to see a more flexible environment."
"Sometimes training the model is difficult."
"The supporting language is limited."
"If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use."
"They should add more GPU processing power to improve performance, especially when dealing with large amounts of data."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is pretty high. Even by US standards, you would find it high."
"The cost is quite high and fixed."
"If you consider the long-term aspect of any project, Azure OpenAI is a costly solution."
"Cost-wise, the product's price is a bit on the higher side."
"According to the negotiations taking place and the contract, there is a need to make either monthly or yearly payments to use the solution."
"While the product meets our business requirements well, I consider it relatively expensive, especially for individual users like myself."
"The solution's pricing depends on the services you will deploy."
"The licensing is interaction-based, meaning transactional. It's reasonably priced for now."
"I've only been using the free tier, but it's quite competitive on a service basis."
"The pricing model is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
University
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure OpenAI?
The product is easy to integrate with our IT workflow.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure OpenAI?
In terms of pricing for Azure OpenAI, I would rate it as average compared to Gemini. Currently, Gemini is becoming increasingly popular, which prompts leadership to consider a switch primarily due ...
What needs improvement with Azure OpenAI?
While it is good, we sometimes encounter hallucination issues, which is a significant concern. We are changing the prompt and fine-tuning it, but we still face some inconsistent behavior. We have s...
What do you like most about IBM Watson Machine Learning?
I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Machine Learning?
Sometimes training the model is difficult. We need to have at least a few different components to evaluate and understand the behavior of different users to have a very, very high accuracy in the m...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure OpenAI vs. IBM Watson Machine Learning and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
863,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.