“On its own, data has zero value,” said Bill Schmarzo on the Data Chief podcast. The numbers, stories, and insights behind the data are the things that give it meaning. That’s why data storytelling is so powerful.
However, Accenture research shows that only one in five organizations can unlock the intrinsic value of their data. This is largely because many businesses are still analyzing data on legacy BI tools that prevent data exploration by way of overcomplicated user experiences that require technical expertise.
The realization of GenAI has ushered in a new Data Renaissance, and the latest breed of AI-powered data visualization tools promises to revolutionize the way you extract value from your data. Here’s what you need to know.
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By embracing AI-powered analytics tools, you can do more than just visualize data. The future of data discovery is all about exploring, interacting, and engaging with your data. In turn, you’ll be empowered to identify underlying trends that might not be apparent in prepopulated, static visualizations.
With sophisticated AI and ML capabilities, all users can access data and reap the benefits of interactive dashboards. But to do this, you need to choose the right analytics solution for your business. Here are some tips that will help you make a well-informed decision:
1. Natural language processing (NLP)
NLP is a subfield of AI that leverages machine learning to give computers the ability to understand, interpret, and generate human language in an understandable and meaningful way. By prioritizing this feature in your data visualization solution, you’ll enable business users to ask questions about their data, create visualizations through text prompts, and even offer summaries explaining the queried data.
For instance, here’s how ThoughtSpot Sage combines natural language processing in our patented search-based interface to generate interactive data visualizations:
2. AI highlights and anomaly detection
A powerful AI analytics tool goes beyond generating text summaries, providing instant access to important insights, such as changes in your top KPIs and metrics. It doesn’t stop there—you can also use AI features to detect real-time anomalies or perform root-cause analysis. This empowers you to get to the ‘why’ faster and make smarter decisions.
The example below highlights how you can leverage the ‘AI Highlight’ feature in ThoughtSpot to unlock the power of your data:
3. Human-in-the-loop feedback
Although GenAI has evolved dramatically over the past few years, it won’t always get it right. This is evident in well-documented incidents of hallucinations, bias, and inaccurate outcomes Irrisponsibly applying AI to your business data can lead to misinformed decision-making, or worse. A human-in-the-loop feedback system allows you to limit such biases, promoting trust and transparency and ensuring your data is accurately presented when queried.
Specifically, you should prioritize solutions that enable users to fine-tune the model’s AI parameters for accurate results and improved performance. Here’s what that looks like in ThoughtSpot:
4. Demonstrated use cases
Most AI tools for data analysis and visualization in the market are still in the production stage, and won’t have much documentation about real-life use cases. Choose a data analytics tool with in-depth documentation, resources, and training materials. It’s important to not just read about the tool but also to get hands-on experience with different Gen AI products to understand trust, accuracy, and cost trade-offs. You may find it useful to check user reviews from reputable sources like Gartner Peer Insights and G2 for up-to-date information about the platform's performance.
💡GenAI Playbook: Learn how to maximize the value of your AI investment.
When the GenAI wave began at the start of 2023, ThoughtSpot was the first to announce and launch an AI-Powered Analytics experience. While we may be biased, we are confident ThoughtSpot can go head-to-head with any AI data visualization tool on the market.
By harnessing the power of large language models like GPT and Google PaLM, ThoughtSpot empowers you to ask complex business questions in natural language, drill into data, gain AI-powered answers, and create interactive data visualizations. Additionally, you have granular security controls with a centralized governed system, allowing you to restrict unauthorized access.
That’s why leading businesses like HP, Odido, and Northmill use our Liveboards and AI-powered features to go beyond basic data visualization to illuminate trends and even suggest new insights. Here’s a quote from Hermen Geerts, Product Owner at Odido, highlighting how ThoughtSpot empowers users by giving them the power of having analytics ‘on tap’:
Core features:
AI-driven search experience
AI-assisted data modeling
AI-powered answers and search suggestions
Interactive data visualizations
Real-time data monitoring
Mobile accessibility for insights on-the-go
Want to see how easy it is to create a compelling data story using ThoughtSpot? Get a product tour or try ThoughtSpot for free.
Polymer is another AI data visualization tool that helps users and data teams combine data from different sources and explore it using filters, dimensions, and segments. With Polymer, users create visualizations, build dashboards and reports, get AI-assisted answers, and share insights and reports across the organization. Additionally, the platform’s data modeling capability allows users to track real-time KPIs and add contextual information to stay on top of changes.
Core features:
AI-generated answers
Data visualization
Connects to multiple databases
Low-code interface
Embedded analytics
Domo helps users visualize their data and create interactive dashboards. With this platform, data teams can get answers to questions, build custom dashboards, make predictions, and perform what-if scenarios.
Core features:
Dashboard creation
AI assistance for data modeling
AI insights
Drag-and-drop interface
Pre-built data connectors
Explo is an embedded dashboard and reporting software with advanced analytics features, such as data blending, modeling, and visualization. It connects to multiple databases and enables users to build and share custom dashboards using an intuitive interface. The platform also boasts AI features, such as Explo AI, that allow data pros to use text prompts to ask questions, get AI insights, and create charts.
Core features:
Multiple data connectors
Data visualization
AI answers and suggestions
Report sharing
Embedded analytics
Google Sheets is a spreadsheet application that enables users to edit, analyze, and visualize data through charts, graphs, and tables. This application also integrates machine learning features such as ‘Explore’ and ‘Sync’ that allow users to analyze and visualize their data using natural language and also programmatically update charts in Docs and Slides.
With ThoughtSpot for Sheets, you can also leverage the AI-powered search bar to ask questions and drill into your Google Sheet data to uncover deeper insights. This powerful integration also allows you to pin charts and graphs to your Google Sheets or Slides so you can present your data story in a meaningful way.
Core features:
Data visualization
Spreadsheet editing and formatting
Multiple formulas and functions
Real-time collaboration
ThoughtSpot integration
Mobile availability
Companies across nearly every industry are infusing AI-powered analytics to make data-driven decisions. Even better they are seeing results—improved productivity, revenue growth, and differentiation.
This was the case for Act-On, who experienced over 60% higher report usage by embedding ThoughtSpot into its flagship software. Here’s what Duessa Holscher, Principal Product Manager at Act-On, has to say about ThoughtSpot’s AI-powered Analytics:
If you are ready to spark your own Data Renaissance, schedule a demo today.
