Databricks has unveiled Databricks AI/BI, a new business intelligence (BI) tool designed to democratize data analytics across organizations. This product combines AI-powered dashboards and Genie, a conversational interface, to enable users to create interactive dashboards and address complex queries using natural language. The system leverages a compound AI framework that learns continuously from organizational data, eliminating the need for traditional setup and modeling.
AI/BI aims to advance self-service BI, expanding the analytical capabilities of everyday users through its AI-first approach. It integrates seamlessly with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, offering unified governance, lineage, secure data sharing, and high performance for diverse data sizes.
Generative AI for Enhanced BI
Current BI tools are limited in scope, often requiring data scientists to answer new, complex queries. Generative AI has been explored as a solution, but traditional approaches using large language models (LLMs) have proven inadequate for real-world applications due to the complexity and variability of business data.
Ali Ghodsi, Databricks’ Co-founder and CEO, emphasized the need for a new BI design centered around AI to understand business semantics and nuances effectively. AI/BI represents this shift, utilizing a compound AI system for comprehensive reasoning and accurate responses.
Innovative Compound AI System
AI/BI’s core is a compound AI system with specialized agents handling tasks like planning, SQL generation, visualization, and response certification. This system learns from human feedback, improving over time and providing persistent knowledge across analyses.
The product offers two main interfaces:
1. AI/BI Dashboards: A low-code, AI-powered dashboarding tool with standard BI capabilities.
2.AI/BI Genie: A conversational interface that learns continuously and answers a wide range of business questions, offering certified responses for specific query patterns.
Key Benefits
Built on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, AI/BI provides:
– Unified Governance and Lineage: Integrated with Databricks Unity Catalog for consistent governance and traceability.
– Effortless Sharing: Seamless integration with Databricks IAM platform for secure data sharing without additional user licenses.
– High Performance: Optimized for high-performance interactions with Databricks SQL data warehouses and Photon engine.
– No Data Extraction Required: Directly operates on existing datasets, ensuring data freshness and simplified governance.
Real-World Application
Felix Baker, Head of Data Services at SEGA Europe, highlighted how Databricks AI/BI enables real-time, ad-hoc querying of consumer behavior data, reducing dependence on data experts and enhancing decision-making speed. This tool empowers SEGA to focus on creating superior gaming experiences by democratizing data access and increasing productivity.