The 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms just dropped, and we’re thrilled to announce that ThoughtSpot was recognized as a Leader in the report.
But, we aren’t the only ones finding ourselves in a new position this year. The analytics and BI space has undergone some of the most significant shifts in over a decade, an aftershock of generative AI.
There's a rebirth happening in data and analytics. With GenAI, technical acumen is no longer a gatekeeper of valuable insights. So, your people and ideas–not technology–are at the center of data-driven decision-making. In this Data Renaissance, the legacy giants are losing their hold on the market as the nimble leaders make strides in innovation, reliability, and customer satisfaction.
The fall of legacy BI
Using natural language as the interface, GenAI helps humans work with technology. Search and chat are the new normal, so businesses must find ways to empower every worker and workflow with these tools. Data and analytics are no exception to this rule.
It’s no longer enough to market a GenAI-powered experience. The testing period is over, and the market demands a trial. In. my assessment of this year's Garter Magic Quadrant, the Leaders were judged on how their products delivered measurable value and tangible ROI in this new era of GenAI. The shifts in dot placements reflect their performance.
To truly empower every workflow and worker with data, you need a modern solution that delivers insights—not a clunky dashboard siloed within a separate BI tool that’s building a backlog of technical debt. The future is GenAI, and Legacy BI is lagging behind. To ensure you’re not swept away in the changing tides, you need a modern solution founded with the vision and expertise required to deliver search-based analytics.
The rise of a true leader
Many factors are measured in industry assessments like the Gartner Magic Quadrant. At ThoughtSpot, we believe it comes down to three things: an innovative product vision around search and GenAI, a user experience that ensures our customers’ success, and a modular conficuration that supports the modern data stack.
Building on our AI origin story
As a platform initially built on the foundation of AI and our user-friendly semantic engine, ThoughtSpot relational search was designed to capitalize on this moment. That’s why we were the first to deliver true natural language query capabilities to our customers, and we’re the only one to offer enterprise-grade accuracy and governance. Customers report up to 95% accuracy when using ThoughtSpot Sage compared to GPT alone.
This level of accuracy is only achievable because we've built safety guardrails into every step of the GenAI process—giving customers transparency, predictability, and trust with our advanced human-in-the-loop feedback controls.
When analysts and data professionals look at the AI-generated search-to-token-SQL provided by ThoughtSpot Sage, they know they cannot get these types of results using a simple chatbot or LLM for text-to-insights via SQL generation. They also know that training any other AI model to perform at this level on their business data would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
The distinct layering of our consumer-grade UX, semantic modeling, and relational search with natural language keywords differentiates ThoughtSpot from the rest. That’s why a Gartner analyst says, “ThoughtSpot is now near the top of the market for AI-enablement across capabilities while reestablishing excellence in NLQ and strength in reporting features.”
Empowering users with powerful experiences
We also know that search isn’t the only way users want to access insights. Finding the "aha!" moments in your data can be challenging, and understanding their significance is even more difficult. By automating analytics experiences through features like Monitor, SpotIQ, and drill-anywhere visualizations, we are transforming the way users discover and understand insights. Here’s what that looks like:
Monitor continuously watches over key business metrics, sending a notification when your data requires your attention. This assistance empowers our customers to stay on top of critical changes within the business.
SpotIQ helps users understand why these changes occur on a Liveboard or search-based level. The generated insights help users make the best decisions when it matters most.
Drill-anywhere visualizations enable a chain of question-answers without losing context at any level of granularity. That means users can ask the next question and the next until they uncover the insight that adds real value to the business.
Even better, all of these features are available through a connected experience across desktop and mobile devices. So, you don’t lose access to essential information when you’re on the move.
With ThoughtSpot Embedded, we empower everyone to embed state-of-the-art AI analytics modules and build tailored data experiences within your customer- or partner-facing applications and portals—all with just a few lines of code. With the same AI-powered ThoughtSpot features you love, like NLQ and SpotIQ, embedded in your application, you can deliver on this massive wave of opportunity created by GenAI.
This entire experience can only come together the way it has with the right analytics architecture, semantic engine, and consumer UX. Working together, ThoughtSpot is helping customers redefine the speed at which businesses can turn data into insights and action and drive meaningful outcomes across their business.
Supporting innovation through an open ecosystem
That said, different analyst firms have their own perspectives based on the customers they serve. One area where Gartner's views differ from our product strategy is in relation to the concept of an open ecosystem. While Gartner considers this to be a cause for caution, we see it as a strength made possible by the API-connected ecosystem. Here's why:
In the past, full-stack solutions dominated the market. There was significant industry consolidation, such as SAP acquiring BusinessObjects and Oracle acquiring Hyperion and Siebel Analytics. Customers would purchase the ERP, database, and analytics tier all from a single vendor. During this time, on-premises installations and proprietary systems made this full-stack offer seem like a safer choice.
With the rise of cloud-based business applications, data is no longer centralized in a single business application like an ERP. Emphasizing full-stack purchasing overlooks the rapid growth of cloud data storage solutions like Snowflake and Databricks, which have seen a growth rate of over 50%. Adding to this perspective, Google recognized ThoughtSpot as the 2024 Cloud Technology Partner of the Year, despite the option to include Looker in BigQuery purchases.
Through strategic partnerships, ThoughtSpot’s open ecosystem facilitates agility, interoperability, and best-of-breed capabilities. For example, customers can now purchase ThoughtSpot through the Google Marketplace using Google Credits, deploy ThoughtSpot Cloud on GCP, and utilize Gemini models. By encouraging customers to leverage the best of the data ecosystem, they can take full advantage of innovative technology advancements like GenAI.
Reimagining what’s possible in analytics with our customers
In this time of revolutionary change, we’re steadfast in our goal to help every company at any size spark their Data Renaissance. Let's be clear, this isn't about the technology—it's about what you do with it. Our work with customers helps make the analytics invisible so that the business impact can be highly visible thoughout your organization.
What’s better, customers like CVS, Capital One, and JustEatTakeaway are seeing these real results in their own businesses. As one insight from this year’s report reads, “Customers cite successful deployments, excellence in augmented analytics, and composability for the modern data stack as reasons they selected ThoughtSpot.” Just consider this anonymous Peer Insights review from February 6, 2024:
“Thanks to ThoughtSpot we can easily derive informative insights from our data which is integral in data-driven decision making. Its AI-powered analytics are critical for employees of any technical level to create visualizations from a given set of data.”
While ThoughtSpot’s user-friendly interface plays a primary role in our customers’ success with GenAI features, the importance of trust should not be overlooked. By replacing AI’s black box with a foundation of transparency, ThoughtSpot users can have confidence in the reliability of their AI-powered insights—as shown in this Peer Insights review from March 20, 2024:
"With ThoughtSpot Analytics, we have obtained reliable and AI-powered insights for all the business operations. The program has ensured all the users experience is exceptional, and all the complex analyses are effortlessly handled.”
To all of our customers who posted a review on Peer Insights or discussed their analytics strategy with Gartner, we appreciate your support and thank you for being a part of this journey with us. We know that our position is influenced by the incredible success of our customers.
ThoughtSpot: A leader like no other
Although this year’s Leaders Quadrant is slightly more crowded than before, ThoughtSpot stands out as a true Leader among legacy BI solutions. As an original pioneer in augmented analytics, ThoughtSpot empowers customers to embrace the GenAI innovation they want by providing the trust, accuracy, predictability, and control they need. See for yourself in an upcoming live demo session.
And if you haven’t already, download your copy of the Gartner 2024 Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms here!
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