IBM is pulling the plug on Watson Workspace. There would be too little demand for the AI-focused collaboration tool. Big Blue has announced on 28 February 2019 that it will terminate the service.
Despite the fact that the company itself describes Watson Workspace as being innovative and agile, it did not succeed in communicating this message to its customers. Since yesterday, users of the collaboration tool have seen a banner in the service’s user interface, containing a timeline.
IBM has now stopped taking new orders. In addition, no new functions are added and, in cooperation with partners, options have been created for the handling of current subscriptions and contracts. This is to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible.
We provide access to a tool for downloading and storing Watson Workspace’s conversations and content. It is advisable to make a schedule which must be retained. This option will only be available for a limited time, it sounds in a memo that The Register was able to view.
Competition
Watson Workspace had a short life. The service was launched in beta at the end of 2016 as a platform for employees to work together and exchange ideas. In addition, IBM added the necessary cognitive skills based on AI.
The market for collaborative tools is gaining in popularity, but the competition is particularly fierce. Different parties throw their weight in the fight for part of the cake. IBM has failed to take a stand against alternative solutions such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Teams in particular have been on the rise lately, since Microsoft decided to offer a version of the tool for free.
Related: Microsoft Teams bigger than Slack, Hangouts gets hits
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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