AI provider
Choose which AI provider processes your organization's chat prompts — Azure OpenAI or IBM watsonx — with every change audited.
Settings → AI Provider lets organization owners and admins choose which AI provider processes the organization's chat prompts: Azure OpenAI or IBM watsonx. Organizations with no explicit setting run on the Azure OpenAI default.
This page is different from AI configuration assistant (Settings → AI), which is a chat tool for proposing workspace configuration changes. AI Provider controls where chat prompts are processed, not what the assistant can configure.
What's on the page
- Current provider — the provider in effect right now, with a badge showing whether it was Set by this organization or is the Inherited default (no explicit setting).
- Provider selector — choose Azure OpenAI or IBM watsonx, then Save.
- A processing disclosure appears whenever IBM watsonx is active or selected. It explains exactly what changes: chat prompts and their completions are processed by IBM (watsonx.ai on IBM Cloud) as a subprocessor instead of Microsoft Azure OpenAI.
Scope of the setting
The setting covers the chat call class only. Retrieval embeddings and speech-to-text are not affected — they stay on their separately pinned providers and are not selectable per organization.
Switching to IBM watsonx
Selecting IBM watsonx reveals an Eval run id field: the switch must reference a passing evaluation run measured on watsonx against the current corpus. The server validates the reference and rejects the switch otherwise — if it isn't accepted, the page shows the server's explanation and your organization stays on its current provider. Broader enablement conditions can also apply, so watsonx may not be switchable for your organization yet even with a valid reference.
Read the processing disclosure before switching. It also states the current contract posture for IBM data processing so you can make an informed decision for regulated data.
Auditing
Every provider change is written to the compliance audit log — who changed it, when, and to what. There is no silent flip: admins see the disclosure at the point of change, and the current provider is always visible on this page.
Who can use this page
Only Owner and Admin roles can view or change the AI provider. Other roles don't see the page in settings navigation.