How data exploration through chat democratizes business intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) has long been regarded as the expertise of professionals who are knowledgeable in data analytics and have extensive experience in business operations. This sounds logical given that deriving insights out of massive amounts of business data requires expertise and the ability to systematically focus on the details that matter.

However, the advent of generative artificial intelligence is breaking this convention. Now, anyone who has decent skills in using computers can engage in sensible business intelligence with the help of an AI system. They can perform BI through a chatbot or copilot that can perform all of the data queries, citations, summaries, reports, analyses, and insight generation in a matter of seconds.

Today, AI and BI form a formidable combination that benefits users who run businesses of all types and sizes.

AI-powered data exploration through chat

In late 2022, ChatGPT showed the world how easy it is to find information without having to apply one’s own logic to synthesize insights. It demonstrated the convenience of quick answers to questions through a system that understands human language and responds to questions in the same way humans would. To some extent, ChatGPT made it possible to summarize lengthy research papers, extract important details from voluminous reports, analyze datasets rapidly, and generate insights.

Now it’s possible for anyone to ask questions or provide instructions through a chatbot. This means anyone can explore data through a generative AI system.

This is a significant improvement in interacting with data. Before the rise of these large language models, data had to go through a series of steps before information was organized and usable to stakeholders and decision-makers. Now, data can be structured, semi-structured, or completely unstructured, but users can still easily extract the details and insights they need with the help of generative AI.

The rise of AI chat-based interfaces has inspired the development of systems that enable conversations with data. Data analytics tools have evolved to make it significantly easier to explore business data without the need to learn new tools. Business intelligence platform Pyramid Analytics, for one, offers a quick and easy way to use business data and achieve dynamic decision-making through a system that the company refers to as Generative BI.

Generative business intelligence

As the phrase suggests, Generative BI is the fusion of Generative AI (Gen AI) and Business Intelligence (BI). It offers a convenient way for anyone to analyze business information and obtain insights in a matter of seconds. There is no learning curve to hurdle, since using the tool is just like using ChatGPT or other AI copilots. All a user needs is a good sense of the right questions to ask.

Users need not go through the tedious tasks of manually sorting data, aggregating and processing the sorted data into insights, and churning out analyses and recommendations for sensible decision-making. They don’t have to ask data analysts to code queries, only to circle back and ask for more queries based on what the previous round of queries unearthed. They can perform all of these tasks through questions or even spoken instructions in Pyramid’s Generative BI (Gen BI) tool.

ChatGPT can perform tasks related to business intelligence. It can analyze reports or surveys, detect data trends and patterns, undertake scenario breakdowns, and conduct predictive analytics. However, it cannot directly serve as a business intelligence tool. What’s more, there are serious security and privacy dangers associated with uploading data to ChatGPT and similar tools.

Pyramid’s Gen BI shows an excellent use case for AI, as it secures and simplifies data discovery through conversation and provides a code-free way to create dashboards for business presentations, adjust visualizations and even segment data on an interactive basis. It also enables the rapid generation of multi-page business reports.

Business intelligence democratization

A solution that clears almost all of the obstacles in undertaking business intelligence puts BI within the reach of more users (democratization) and provides significant support towards business success. This is what the combination of generative AI and BI does, as exemplified by Pyramid’s Gen BI solution. It democratizes business intelligence through simplification, accessibility, and empowerment.

Simplification happens with the introduction of chat-style business intelligence, because users are not bound by procedures, jargon, or formats traditionally used solely by trained business intelligence experts. Now, users can gather, prepare, integrate, analyze, visualize, and communicate business data by merely making inquiries or giving out instructions.

They don’t need to be proficient in detecting and filling out missing values or standardizing data formats, because the AI system can automatically handle all of these. If there are incompatibilities in the data, the Gen BI system can resolve them or give users a heads-up to clarify the flow of their analysis and presentation.

Moreover, conversational data exploration democratizes business intelligence by providing an accessible way to undertake BI. A tool that is as easy to use as ChatGPT requires no training and specific hardware to use. Even mobile device users can perform data analysis and reporting with it. If there are tweaks needed in the presentations, users can easily ask the AI system to modify the format or come up with different ways to view and scrutinize data.

Pyramid’s Gen BI solution, for example, comes with the ability to quickly create a dashboard for viewing business data or reports. This dashboard allows anyone to examine the data through different criteria, creating a dynamic way to appreciate data and arrive at the most sensible decisions.

Moreover, conversational BI intelligence moves towards democratization by empowering users to conduct business intelligence in ways that work for them. Pyramid’s Gen BI solution enables business intelligence that matches the varying proficiency levels of untrained business executives, data teams, and product managers.

Business users can proceed using plain language, yielding dynamic visualizations that are easily understood and iterated. Data teams get sophisticated analytics and more technical outputs based on the more complex questions or requests they input. Meanwhile, product managers get an embedded BI solution that allows them to offer data insights to users through a ChatGPT-like environment.

A smarter way to do business intelligence

Generative AI augments BI to form Gen BI, which can be likened to having a tireless business intelligence expert beside you to do most of the work while you make requests and ask questions.

Making business intelligence accessible to everyone offers game-changing benefits. It allows everyone in an organization to have a better understanding of business operations and outlook. Additionally, it empowers involvement or contribution to strategic improvement initiatives, while enabling enterprises to maximize the utility of the data they collect and generate.

Featured image credit: Campaign Creators/Unsplash