Abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining does not impact material quality and modern machining processes. The trials follow the Taguchi L25 orthogonal array and the workpiece material is Ti grade 5 alloy. The optimal process parameters are determined using response surface methodology and these parameters include transverse speed (TS), pressure (P), abrasive flow rate (AFR) and stand-off distance (SoD). The aim of this research is to identify, evaluate, and improve the impression of AWJ machining parameters on response variables (machining time [MT], surface roughness [SR], and hardness). Achieving this objective involves utilizing grey relational analysis in conjunction with principal component analysis. TS has the least influence on performance while AFR has the greatest. The best configuration for the lowest MT, SR, and Highest Hardness Rockwell C scale (HRC) is (AFR = 600 g/min, SoD = 4 mm, P = 20 kpsi, and quality = 5 approximately, speed 75 mm/min). Here, quality = 5 corresponds to a TS of approximately 75 mm/min and the factor AFR has the greatest impact on material machining performance, according to the analysis of variance, followed by factors P, standoff distance, and TS. The chronological sequence of influence is as follows: AFR > P > SoD > TS with contributions of 85.45%, 8.06%, 2.90%, and 2.09%, respectively. Experiments showed that the proposed methodology enhanced AWJ machining performance by 0.3665 which is represented as multi-response performance index.