Examples described herein provide for associating a network device to a network management system (NMS). Examples herein include determining, by a network orchestrator, a set of embeddings indicative of characteristics of the network device and each of a plurality of instances of the NMS. Examples herein include determining, by the network orchestrator for each of the plurality of instances, a probability score based on the set of embeddings, wherein the probability score is indicative of a likelihood of the network device to be associated with the instance. Examples herein further include, based on the probability score for each of the plurality of instances, selecting, by the network orchestrator, a first instance of the plurality of instances to associate with the network device. Examples herein include associating, by the network orchestrator, the network device to the first instance.