Answer
No. watsonx connects to Db2 for i and other operational data sources through APIs, database connectors, and event streams, reading and enriching the data where it already lives rather than requiring a migration first. watsonx.data can sit alongside that data as a hybrid lakehouse layer without displacing the system of record.
That matters for IBM i shops specifically, since the value of watsonx depends on it having clean access to live transactional data, not a stale copy sitting in a separate warehouse that was accurate the day it was loaded.