Business intelligence seems almost indispensable in a modern organization’s decision-making process. Yet in many cases, just the foundation of BI—the dashboard—is no longer enough. A new wind is blowing with generative AI and agentic AI, making BI a more dynamic discipline. In conversation with CEO Ryan Aytay and CPO Southard Jones, we discuss how Tableau will remain relevant in 2024 and beyond.
Aytay also sees that BI is fundamentally changing. It used to be a static data discipline. You looked at a dashboard only to analyze the data presented—no matter how beautiful—mainly on your own. In themselves, those were nice presentations of company data, but could you interpret everything correctly? And is it possible to take the right action based on such a visualization? That very thing is essential for an informed way of working.
“Our intent is to really make Tableau an action platform,” Aytay said. The CEO sees great opportunities for that with generative AI and also agentic AI. “It accelerates the whole movement. I don’t think dashboards are ending; they are evolving.”
BI in daily workflow
The action platform envisioned by Aytay should ensure that BI is no longer an isolated activity. Traditionally, dashboards are often consulted only a few times a month for performance management. The goal is to discover trends and make improvements based on those trends. According to Jones, this type of analysis will not disappear entirely, as employees must continue to look at data periodically. “For someone who regularly measures performance, dashboards are very useful. And this performance management based on reports will continue to be needed,” said Tableau’s Chief Product Officer.
BI will remain static in that case, precisely because it is relevant to Jones’ described scenario. However, as part of an action platform, BI will increasingly be integrated into daily operations. Indeed, the data-driven paradigm is increasingly being embraced. That requires a way of working that goes beyond mere performance management: a BI tool that not only provides the basis for a data professional, but one that business users can also get along with. Accountants, HR professionals and marketers are just a few examples of professions that are becoming more dependent on data analysis every day.
New layer for interaction
One might wonder if it will be possible to implement analytics more broadly in everyday work. The BI world has had that aspiration for some time, but the desired speed to achieve it is not always achieved. Yet, with generative AI and agentic AI, things are different now. The first kind significantly lowers the threshold for working with data. Want quick factual information about sales activities? Ask a chatbot that can handle the BI platform and you’ll be presented with it in the right visualization – all as real-time as possible.
The nice thing about this is that the visualization can be delivered in a tool the employee uses. Companies that take the broad stack from Tableau parent Salesforce can see the visualization in Slack, for example. That kind of integration also elevates a BI developer’s job. After all, their job is to make visualizations as accessible as possible. Showing a visualization in Slack does precisely that. A regular user no longer needs to switch tools for basic tasks.
The philosophy of an action platform now comes together as much as possible in the new premium package Tableau+. In our conversation, Aytay compares this offering to the most advanced version of the iPhone, in which you will find all the device’s best features. If you want to use all of Tableau’s AI features and thus utilize its full action platform potential, then the premium offering is the logical choice. For example, the AI assistant Tableau Agent, which lets you chat about data preparation and visualization tasks, is only available in Tableau+.
Proactive insights where you want them
The next step in making Tableau an action platform has been present in the form of Pulse since the beginning of this year. This generative AI tool has been worked on for years, but now it functions fully within Tableau Cloud. What does Tableau Pulse do? In the performance management example Jones shared, we mentioned that dashboards traditionally relied on the user logging in to gather insights. Pulse turns exactly that around. It proactively keeps users informed of relevant changes in data. The system continuously monitors data and automatically sends notifications when significant deviations occur, such as declining KPIs or a sudden increase in sales.
For this, Pulse monitors only the relevant data for a specific employee. That’s what Pulse is instructed to do. Based on AI, it generates a natural-looking text message and supplements it with data visualization to make it as understandable as possible. These insights are delivered through the channel of choice, such as Slack, email, or the Tableau Mobile app. Delivering insights through different channels should make employees more engaged in BI by providing them with relevant information at the time.
To use Pulse, an organization must rely on Tableau Cloud. That may still be a challenge for some users, as many customers use Tableau Server. For now, Pulse remains a Tableau Cloud feature, allowing it to rely entirely on the performance benefits of analytics in the cloud. Moreover, the most advanced version of Pulse is only available within Tableau+, which stands out with additional options for control, scalability, and conversations via chat.
Customization within organizations
In analytics, a platform must be able to deliver a lot out-of-the-box to cover as many business scenarios as possible by default. At the same time, it is necessary to accommodate the unique needs of organizations. To this end, Tableau is betting on expanding its marketplace, Exchange. Here, users get access to off-the-shelf solutions. The solutions are divided into “Accelerators” for customized dashboards, “Dashboard Extensions” for adding features to the dashboard, “Connectors” for connecting to other data sources, and most recently, “Viz Extensions” for adding Web applications that extend visual capabilities.
Exchange includes solutions from Tableau itself and third-party vendors. These solutions are often very useful for companies with very targeted requirements. They can quickly get an application within the marketplace and get started without much configuration work. That means quick implementation of a new BI application rather than time-consuming projects for BI engineers and consultants. They can then focus on the company’s unique projects.
The (agent)force of Salesforce
Although Tableau is among the top choices in the analytics landscape, some organizations are concerned about the future of the product now that it is under Salesforce. We bring this up during our conversation with Aytay and Jones. Aytay emphasizes that Tableau has grown stronger because of Salesforce’s capabilities. For example, the BI platform has tight integration with Agentforce, not to be confused with Tableau Agent. Linking with Agentforce furthers the agentic AI story as part of an action platform.
When you pull an insight from Tableau that requires follow-up actions within a CRM system, the link to Salesforce provides a seamless workflow. Say the Tableau data source identifies a decline in customer satisfaction. Agentforce can then suggest initiatives like discount campaigns or improved customer service. The AI agent can execute those actions in an automated way by relying on the building blocks “Topics” (defining the application), “Instructions” (the instructions for the Topic), and “Actions” (intelligent steps).
The action platform envisioned by Tableau is thus complete for now. However, much will change with the newly available capabilities of agentic AI. AI agents should soon be usable by all kinds of business users. This makes BI a discipline that is and will remain alive and kicking.
Tip: Tableau Pulse uses generative AI to create data analysis on its own