Transforming Business Intelligence in the GenAI World: Insights from Google’s Shashank Gandhi at Cypher 2023

In a recent talk at Cypher 2023, Shashank Gandhi, a Product Manager at Google, delved into the future of Business Intelligence (BI) in the GenAI world. Gandhi, who works for Looker, Google’s complete BI offering, discussed the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for organizations striving to make the most out of their data and AI investments.

The GenAI Revolution

Gandhi began by highlighting the transformative potential of Generative AI (GenAI) in disrupting traditional BI. He noted that despite significant investments in data and AI, only 68% of companies are able to realize value from their data. However, GenAI stands as a silver lining, offering an inflection point that promises to add tremendous new business value.

Google’s Data and AI Cloud

Google’s Data and AI Cloud serves as a unified platform for analytics, database, and AI workloads. It offers integrated data products and is built for Google scale, making it simple and easy to use. Gandhi emphasized that Google’s approach is multi-format, multi-engine, and multi-storage, designed to simplify the governance of data, analytics, and AI.

Looker: Google’s Complete BI Offering

Looker, as Gandhi explained, offers three key features:

1. Self-service and visualization capabilities for creating reports, schedules, and alerts.
2. Developer tools that are API-first, helping customers monetize their data and integrate it into their workflows.
3. A trusted platform built on Looker’s unique semantic model, ensuring governed and consistent metrics.

Infusing Intelligence into Looker

One of the most exciting parts of the talk was the introduction of intelligence into Looker. Gandhi revealed that Looker is being infused with Generative AI to make data professionals more productive. This includes features like conversational queries, automatic slide generation, report generation, formula assistant, and advanced visualization assistant.

Conversational Queries

This feature allows users to have direct, natural language conversations with their data, democratizing data and insights for all users.

Automatic Slide Generation

This feature automates the creation of presentations from Looker reports, complete with natural language bullet points for storytelling.

Report Generation

This is like having an AI analyst that builds a report based on natural language input, saving significant time for data professionals.

Formula Assistant

This feature simplifies the creation of custom formulas, making it easier for analysts to define complex calculations.

Advanced Visualization Assistant

This assistant opens up infinite possibilities for creating custom visualizations without the need for coding.

Conclusion

Shashank Gandhi’s talk at Cypher 2023 offered a comprehensive look at the future of Business Intelligence in the GenAI era. From the capabilities of Google’s Data and AI Cloud to the intelligent features being added to Looker, the lecture was a treasure trove of insights for anyone interested in the rapidly evolving field of BI.

For those interested in diving deeper into this subject, Cypher 2023 offers a platform for discussion and collaboration on the cutting-edge topics in data science and AI.