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Data and analytics agents

Data and analytics agents let people ask questions of governed data in plain words, then write the query, check it, and show the definitions behind the number they return. They are built on your semantic layer, so what comes back agrees with the figures your finance and data teams already publish, and we test that agreement on questions your data team has answered before anybody else is given access.

How the system is put together.

What goes in, what the system is allowed to touch, where a person decides, and the number it gets measured on. We draw every system before we build it, which is the cheapest place to have the argument about what it should do.

Working drawing of analytics agentFIG. 02ANALYTICS AGENTINPUTSWarehouse andlakehouseSemantic layerBusiness questionsFRONTIERMODEL LAYERselected by evaluationTOOLS AND INTEGRATIONSQuery generationValidation checksReport deliveryHUMAN CHECKPOINTDefinition changesOUTCOME, MEASUREDAgreement withpublished numbers
Working drawing of the analytics agent. Inputs: warehouse and lakehouse; semantic layer; business questions. These feed a frontier model layer, selected by evaluation. The model layer works through three tools and integrations: query generation; validation checks; report delivery. Below the model layer there is a human checkpoint on definition changes. The outcome measured is agreement with published numbers.

What actually changes once it is live.

These are the changes we measure. One of them becomes the number in the contract, and the monthly report is written against it for as long as we run the system.

  • Questions answered the same afternoon they are asked
  • One set of definitions behind every number
  • Recurring reports drafted, with the variances already explained
  • A metric moving the wrong way flagged before the monthly review

What data and analytics agents gets used for.

Questions in plain words

Asked of the warehouse or lakehouse, answered with the query shown and the definitions it used set out beside the number.

Reports and commentary

Board packs, operational reviews and client reports drafted, including the paragraph that explains why the numbers moved.

Monitoring and alerting

Metrics watched continuously, with an account of what changed and where, sent to whoever can act on it.

Data quality

Checks written, run and triaged, with proposed fixes going to the owner of the data.

Planning support

Assumptions gathered, models re-run and results explained, through a planning cycle that used to be a fortnight of spreadsheets.

From your process to a running system.

  1. 01Start from your metric definitions. Where they do not exist yet, agreeing them is the first piece of work, and it is worth doing anyway.
  2. 02Build the agent to write a query, validate it, and show its working.
  3. 03Test it on questions your data team has already answered, compare, and then put it where people already are: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Power BI, the browser.

Good fit

Worth doing where there is a warehouse or a lakehouse already, and a queue of business questions that never reaches the top of the backlog.

Discuss this use case

FAQ

Data and analytics agents: questions

Bring the frontier into production.

Tell us about the process you want to change. We reply within one business day.