Alteryx reinvents data analytics with generative AI

Irvine, based in California alterixwhich powers data analytics for more than 8,000 global companies, has launched a generative AI engine called AiDIN.

Announced today at the Alteryx Inspire conference, AiDIN is part of the company’s suite of cloud platforms. It introduces multiple new LLM-based capabilities aimed at helping companies derive actionable insights from data while ensuring high levels of productivity.

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The announcement marks the entry of another data ecosystem player into the world of Generative AI. Companies like Honeycomb, Informatica, Kinetica, and ThoughtSpot had already introduced generative AI capabilities to address different aspects of data (from query to management) their way.

How will AiDIN help Generative AI?

AiDIN is an umbrella term for a series of generative AI innovations set to make their way into the Alteryx Cloud Platform product portfolio. For starters, Alteryx said it’s introducing three key acceleration features for business users: Magic Documents, Workflow Summary, and an OpenAI connector.

Magic Documents

With Magic Documents, the company is enhancing its Auto Insights offering to include automated summarization and delivery. Previously, the explanation of metric movement generated by Auto Insights had to be communicated manually with stakeholders. With the new feature, Alteryx is automating the process of synthesizing analytical insights in plain language and generating clear and concise communications for different mediums (presentations, emails, messages) and audiences.

“Magic Documents works by connecting to OpenAI via Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services. An API call is made whenever an Auto Insights user clicks the “Generate” button, resulting in content generation for the user,” Asa Whillock, vice president and general manager of machine learning at Alteryx, told VentureBeat.

“This saves users valuable time and effort, allowing them to focus on absorbing information, planning actions and making data-driven decisions. Streamlined communication improves time-to-value, operational efficiency, and decision-making capabilities for businesses,” she added.

Workflow summary

While Magic Documents helps communicate analytical insights, Workflow Summary for Alteryx Designer allows users to document their processes more effectively for governance and auditability. For this, the tool uses ChatGPT, which automatically generates concise summaries of a workflow’s purpose, inputs, outputs, and key logical steps in natural language, along with associated metadata.

“The Workflow Summary tool addresses the challenge of understanding and documenting complex Alteryx workflows, particularly in scenarios where workflows are inherited from others, (during) server management transitions or when revisiting old projects without proper documentation. It eliminates the need to open each workflow and go through it manually,” Whillock explained.

In particular, to address the limitations of ChatGPT in handling long text, Alteryx has developed strategies for converting workflow files into manageable text lengths. This involved selectively extracting relevant tool configurations, summarizing long tools individually, and summarizing groups of tools or containers into a workflow.

The OpenAI connector for workflows

Whillock said Atleryx Designer will also receive a Open AI connector to help teams implement Generative AI into their data and analytics workflows targeting different use cases. For example, they could use it to label customer calls based on product and sentiment, or localize audit logs into any local language.

“These two examples barely scratch the surface, as Alteryx customers are already finding an incredible number of ways to apply LLM to their Alteryx workflows,” added Whillock.

The VP noted that companies have already shown an “unmatched appetite” for capabilities that take repetitive tasks off their plates, and that Alteryx will soon offer more capabilities to reinvent analytics in 2023 and expand what it offers with the AiDIN engine. .

Currently, in the machine learning and analytics domain, Alteryx competes with multiple players, including Looker, Tableau, Qlik, and Rapidminer. The company has raised a total of more than $600 million in four rounds of funding.