---
name: watson-assistant-in-place-upgrade
title: Upgrading to agents with an in-place upgrade
description: Use this guide to understand how an eligible watsonx Assistant instance is upgraded to watsonx Orchestrate. The upgrade adds the agent-building capabilities of watsonx Orchestrate to your existing instance. Your conversational AI assets, including assistants, dialog flows, and actions, remain in place and continue to operate without disruption.
last-updated: 2026-08-21
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/watson-assistant?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Upgrading to agents with an in-place upgrade
{: #in-place-upgrade}

Use this guide to understand how an eligible watsonx Assistant instance is upgraded to watsonx Orchestrate. The upgrade adds the agent-building capabilities of watsonx Orchestrate to your existing instance. Your conversational AI assets, including assistants, dialog flows, and actions, remain in place and continue to operate without disruption.

## Before you begin
{: #in-place-upgrade-before-you-begin}

Verify that your instance meets the following conditions before the upgrade can begin:

- The watsonx Assistant instance is provisioned on IBM Cloud.
- The instance is on a [supported service plan](#in-place-upgrade-supported-plans).

### Supported service plans
{: #in-place-upgrade-supported-plans}

| Plan | In-place upgrade available |
|------|---------------------------|
| Standard | Yes |
| Plus | Yes |
| Enterprise | Yes |
| Lite | No |
| Trial | No |
| Enterprise with Data Isolation | No |
| Premium API | No |
| Premium MAU | No |

## Upgrade your instance to watsonx Orchestrate
{: #in-place-upgrade-steps}

Complete the following steps to upgrade your watsonx Assistant instance:

1. Go to [cloud.ibm.com/resources](https://cloud.ibm.com/resources) and sign in with your IBM Cloud credentials.

1. Locate and open the instance page for a watsonx Assistant instance on a compatible plan.

1. If your account and instance are eligible, the upgrade starts automatically when you open the instance page. No manual action is required to begin the upgrade.

1. While the upgrade is in progress, a banner on the instance page notifies you that watsonx Orchestrate features are being provisioned.

1. After the upgrade completes, a banner confirms that the instance was upgraded to watsonx Orchestrate.

1. When you return to the instance page later, the confirmation banner remains available so that you can identify upgraded instances and open the upgrade documentation.

## Navigate back to Assistant builder
{: #in-place-upgrade-navigate-back}

After the upgrade, access Assistant builder directly from within watsonx Orchestrate:

1. In the watsonx Orchestrate interface, click the menu icon in the navigation menu.

1. Click **Assistant builder** to open your existing assistants.

## What remains in place after the upgrade
{: #in-place-upgrade-what-remains}

Your existing AI assistants and all associated configuration remain in place after the upgrade completes. The following assistant types continue to operate without modification:

- Assistants that use Dialog flows
- Assistants that use Actions