Amazon Alexa for Business vs. IBM watsonx Orchestrate

Virtual assistants at work are still new features and have a lot to improve. 
The more features we have, the more we want new features. 
In small environments we have "noise" between virtual assistants, making use inappropriate. 
But in more distributed environments it is very good.
We still have a lot to learn (both, us and our Alexas). 

Watson Orchestrate is a fantastic tool for low code and no code automation with many out-of-the-box integrations, a nice visual interface to prepare skills to flow, and a modular approach to "building" workflows. The conversion to code-based applications required to move to production is not equivalent to the graphical user interface. Some more difficult steps in skills flows need code to execute at scale.

Incentivized

• Communication between people on the team.
• Interactive personal assistant.
• Better workspace management.

• CRM updates and lead management.
• Reminders for tasks and automation of sequenced skills.
• Approval and confirmation workflows.

Incentivized

• Could have a feature for group chats.
• Alexa has some problems hearing nearby voices.
• Website suggestions are irrelevant sometimes (should have user evaluation functionality for the answer, improving accuracy).

• User experience in custom skills could be simplified.
• APIs are great... but form/website-based form interaction could be improved (as other similar products have.
• Training and documentation are delivered for 101 getting started, and when you need deeper technical understanding, documentation could be improved.

Incentivized

We looked at two other alternatives: Google Nest and Apple. But Alexa already has popular devices that many people on the team already had in their homes. And it would be easier to integrate into the professional environment. The cost of Amazon products is also much lower, which makes the product more competitive.

Make has more community of workflows to follow that have been redeveloped and are available for download. Selecting WxO is based on our trust level with IBM and the propositions of the Granite model being less biased, more business trained, and the ecosystem allowing for expansion with Assistant and Discovery.

Incentivized

• Difficulties with technology integration.
• Identify all possible uses.
• We still lost a lot of time making new settings.

• As a very small team WxO give us more time back and handles manual tasks.
• WxO helps us reduce manual errors (and the time it takes to find and resolve.)
• WxO, as a task scheduler and reminder system, helps us not forget certain key events with time-dependent requirements.

Incentivized