Ask anyone on your data team about the potential of advanced analytics tools, and they’ll probably light up, ready to talk about the endless possibilities of big data and AI. But ask if those tools are actually driving day-to-day decisions, and you might get a hesitant pause. That’s when the real trade-offs begin to show.
It’s easy to see why. Imagine sitting in your office, staring at a dashboard crammed with different charts, complex predictive models, and countless KPIs. You know valuable insights are buried somewhere, but turning it into a real business outcome? That could take forever. Where do you even start?
At the end of the day, your team doesn’t need an analytics tool that just spins out more dashboards. What they really need are real-time, actionable insights that make working with data easier, not harder. If that’s what you’ve been searching for, you’re in the right place. We’ve rounded up some of the best advanced analytics tools for 2025—ones that can turn scattered data into timely, practical insights. Let’s dive in.
Table of contents:
ThoughtSpot is making advanced analytics accessible to everyone—not just data experts. As leaders in BI, ThoughtSpot empowers users with a trusted, dedicated enterprise AI that allows anyone to explore their data from any angle, anywhere, anytime. Whether you want to forecast trends, investigate anomalies, or create interactive data visualizations, you can simply ask a question in natural language and get the answers you need, all in real time.
Plus, you can seamlessly embed ThoughtSpot’s custom actions, writebacks, and workflows into any business application, making it easy to surface insights and take action wherever you are.
Core features
AI Agents: With Spotter, your dedicated AI Analyst, you can use GenAI to drive meaningful outcomes in your business. No matter where your data lives or how specific your question is, Spotter delivers reliable answers in an intuitive, conversational experience. This allows everyone—from business leaders to frontline employees—to interact with data on their own terms.
Analyst Studio: For data teams, they can leverage the Analyst Studio. This capability allows data teams to connect to any cloud data warehouse, prepare their data for AI, and perform advanced analytics with Python and R notebooks—all within one complete analytics workflow.
AI-Augmented Dashboards: ThoughtSpot’s AI-augmented dashboards provide real-time, interactive, and endlessly-drillable, insights. With AI-driven capabilities, Liveboards can easily detect patterns, anomalies, and trends, giving you a deeper explanation of your data.
Any Data, Anywhere: Break down silos by bringing all of your data into a unified hub. Once you have a single source of truth, you can start deploying powerful models, automating data pipelines, and managing data at scale—all while ensuring top-tier security and governance.
ThoughtSpot Pros
The self-service analytics experience makes data exploration and analysis intuitive for everyone.
With automated AI insights, business users can easily identify important trends and anomalies in their data.
Real-time data updates and interactive Liveboards for faster decision-making.
ThoughtSpot Cons
Setting up your dataset might take some time and effort, but once it's structured, you're all set to dive into analysis and discover valuable insights.
Pricing
ThoughtSpot offers flexible pricing models designed to meet the unique needs of different businesses and enterprises. Here’s a quick breakdown of each plan:
The Essential plan—starts at $1250 /month
The Pro plan—custom pricing
The Enterprise plan—custom pricing
IBM’s advanced analytics platform supports data integration, visualization, predictive analytics, and AI-assisted data modeling. Analysts can connect and clean their data from multiple sources, create reports, and use machine learning to build predictive and prescriptive models. To make exploration easier, this advanced analytics platform also has an AI assistant that helps you create real-time dashboards, gain automated insights, and share reports.
That said, it’s not without challenges. The platform’s reliance on advanced data modeling techniques introduces a learning curve, especially for business users who aren’t fluent in complex coding. Industry reports also highlight performance issues, particularly for complex queries, which can restrict real-time decision-making.
Core features
Data exploration: Utilize advanced tools for complex analyses, including 'what-if' scenarios and predictive modeling.
Watsonx BI assistant: Gain AI-powered insights that highlight key trends and patterns in the data.
IBM Planning Analytics: Streamline and automate financial and operational reporting across the enterprise.
Data visualization: Create interactive visualizations and dashboards for further analysis.
Pros
Integrates seamlessly with other IBM products like IBM Cognos Analytics and IBM Controller.
AI-driven insights and advanced modeling features accelerate decision-making.
Cons
The set-up and subscription costs can escalate quickly, limiting the platform’s usage for smaller organizations.
Customizing visuals and exporting data can be time-consuming and restrictive.
Pricing
IBM Business Analytics Enterprise offers flexible, custom pricing tailored to your organization's specific requirements. For a more accurate quote, it's best to consult with IBM's support team directly.
30-day free trial available
Qlik offers advanced data exploration capabilities, giving users access to automated insights, natural language interaction, AI-assisted data prep, and predictive analytics. With Qlik Talend, your analysts can integrate data from multiple cloud sources and create interactive visualizations. The platform also allows you to build statistical models, make predictions, and test what-if scenarios.
However, potential adopters should consider some limitations. Although the platform features some AI capabilities, it is still unclear whether the company can ramp up its AI capabilities fast enough to keep up with the market’s growing demands.
Core features
Data integration: Connect data from multiple sources, including cloud data warehouses, CRM systems, and spreadsheets.
Data visualization: Customize dashboards and visualizations for better storytelling.
AutoML: Forecast outcomes, create models, and gain automated insights into data.
Real-time monitoring: Track data as it changes for the latest updates about your business KPIs.
Pros
Qlik has a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create custom visualizations.
The platform supports a wide variety of connectors, making data integration easy.
Cons
For complex datasets, Qlik may require manual reloading or refreshing of data.
The initial setup may be complex, requiring additional time and resources.
Pricing
Qlik’s pricing can be tricky to navigate, with different licensing models for different products. For instance, Qlik’s Cloud Analytics Suite offers three pricing tiers—Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. However, when it comes to its Data Integration product, the options expand even further. We recommend connecting directly with Qlik’s team.
Free trial available
SAS Viya is an advanced analytics tool that supports large-scale data manipulation, exploration, and modeling. The platform also features AI and machine learning capabilities that help you predict outcomes, stimulate business scenarios, and run statistical analyses.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind. While SAS Viya integrates well with Microsoft 365, its compatibility with other cloud platforms is limited. These restrictions can keep your data team from building new pipelines and capitalizing on opportunities quickly.
And then there’s the pricing—users often find the platform’s pricing structure complex and opaque, making it difficult to gauge costs upfront.
Core features
AI-assisted data modeling: Leverage machine learning and AI to identify the common variables in your models.
Matrix programming: Understand complex relationships in data using exploratory data analysis.
Forecasting: Build your own data models, including time series and hierarchical forecasts.
Text analytics: Use natural language to create visualization and dashboards.
Pros
With in-memory data processing, you can analyze large datasets and monitor your KPIs in real-time
SAS Viya supports multiple coding languages like Python, R, and Lua, giving data teams the flexibility to run complex analyses.
Cons
Due to its advanced features and capabilities, there’s a steep learning curve for beginners.
When it comes to data visualizations, the customization options can be quite limiting.
Pricing
SAS Viya has a subscription-based pricing model where the costs vary widely depending on which features you need and how you plan to use them. Plus, getting all of SAS’s features can be expensive, especially if your data consumption is high. It’s best to connect with their team for the best pricing estimate.
Free trial available
SAP Analytics Cloud is an enterprise planning and advanced analytics platform with features like data blending, modeling, and visualization. It connects to all SAP applications and offers AI capabilities to help users build dashboards and explore data. Additionally, you can run ‘what-if’ simulations, create time-series forecasts, and build predictive models to make informed business decisions.
While SAP scores well on its reporting and analytical capabilities, industry reports show it doesn’t really stand out for its advanced analytics capabilities. It is best for potential adopters to carefully evaluate each of SAP’s product capabilities for the best product fit.
Core features
AI Assistant: Leverage ‘Joule copilot’ to access insights on demand and augment your data modeling pipeline.
Data modeling: Generate statistical models, forecast trends, and create detailed reports.
Native connection with SAP Datasphere: Integration with SAP Datasphere, including SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactor for a comprehensive view of your data.
Extended planning and analysis: Unify data from different sources into a single source of truth for further analysis.
Pros
Enterprise planning capabilities can help users accelerate the report creation process.
The platform is praised for its strong customer support system, offering users quick resolution, documentation, and tutorials.
Cons
The tool may require significant computing resources, which can lead to performance issues if not properly managed.
Pricing
SAP Analytics Cloud offers three flexible licensing options to meet your organization’s needs. Here’s a quick overview:
SAP Analytics Cloud for business intelligence—starts at $300 (Contract duration between 12 and 60 months)
SAP Analytics Cloud for planning, standard edition—starts at $1,140 (Contract duration between 12 and 60 months)
SAP Analytics Cloud for planning, professional edition—starts at $13,440 (Contract duration between 3 and 60 months)
Free trial available
Although advanced analytics can help you dig deep into your data, successful adoption isn’t just about picking the most popular option. From market trends to vendor support, there are several factors you need to consider before making a move.
Here are some expert tips that will help you understand the landscape better and assess different vendors for the best value:
Define your ambitions: Get crystal clear about what you want to achieve from your investments. Is it about speeding up decision-making or discovering new revenue streams? Without having an objective, you risk investing in a tool that looks powerful but doesn’t really align with your business priorities. Once your goals are mapped out, you can zero in on the right vendors and set measurable success metrics.
Opt for action-oriented analytics: Data is valuable only when it leads to action. That’s why it’s important to choose solutions that not only give users access to data but empower them to act on it. The right tool will allow users to effortlessly query data in natural language and instantly find the answers they need. This allows teams to move from analysis to action faster.
Consider the trade-offs: Every analytics tool comes with its own strengths and limitations. Some offer excellent scalability but require extensive training, while others are easy to use but lack advanced analytical depth. Integration is another key factor—will the platform work seamlessly with your existing tech stack? And what about the cost? By carefully weighing these trade-offs, you can choose a solution that meets your current and long-term goals.
Weigh in the skill gap: Even the most powerful analytics tool is useless if your business teams can’t leverage it. Think about who will be using the platform and what skills are needed for basic analysis. is the platform really intuitive enough for your non-technical users? Choosing the right fit maximizes adoption, leading to a data-driven culture.
Companies have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with advanced analytics—partly because the landscape is evolving faster than ever. With new AI tools and automation workflows emerging every day, it’s easy for data teams and business users to get bogged down rather than feeling empowered. To turn your users into true data advocates, you need a GenAI analytics experience that’s purpose-built for everyone.
ThoughtSpot is the only platform that can deliver this. With patented natural language processing, ThoughtSpot answers complex questions from messy, real-world datasets, giving users the confidence to take instant action. No more waiting on dashboards or sifting through complex reports—just actionable insights that drive smarter decisions.
Want to experience this for yourself? Get a free demo from our team to get started!
