Use the Planning Analytics AI assistant to interact with books using natural language

The Planning Analytics AI assistant lets you perform a wide variety of actions on books using simple natural language commands.

Planning Analytics AI assistant supports English, German, French, and Spanish. If you're using Planning Analytics Workspace in any other language the Planning Analytics AI assistant defaults to English.

The Planning Analytics AI assistant is available only when working directly in a book. The assistant is not available when you open a book from a plan or application, nor is it available from a modeling workbench.

Important:

Planning Analytics AI assistant requires a separate license purchase, it is not included in a standard Planning Analytics Workspace license. To purchase a license, contact your IBM sales representative or go directly to your IBM account.

To enable Planning Analytics AI assistant on Planning Analytics Workspace Local, you must set the ENABLE_WATSONX_ASSISTANT and WATSONX_ASSISTANT_CONFIG configuration parameters in the paw.ps1 (Windows) or paw.env (Linux) configuration file.

To use the assistant, open a book and click the Planning Analytics AI assistant icon on the toolbar, right next to your user name.

Type a natural language command or instruction in the Planning Analytics AI assistant. There are no hard and fast rules about how you issue a command, as long as the command includes a single action that you want to perform and (in most cases) the subject of the action. For example, if you want to swap the rows and columns in an exploration, all of these commands will work:

  • swap rows and columns
  • switch rows
  • exchange rows and columns
  • swap (notice there is no subject specified here)

To reuse a previous command from the current session, place the cursor in the Planning Analytics AI assistant text entry box, then use the Up and Down keyboard keys to cycle through recent commands. When the desired command is in the text box, press Enter to use the command.

Some commands require that an object or widget on a book be selected before typing the command, others require that the book be in Edit mode before the command can be executed. Some commands are applicable only to explorations, while others are applicable only to visualizations. In these circumstances, Planning Analytics AI assistant alerts you to the requirement.

Assistant message indicating that you must select a view

When your command is ambiguous or cannot be completed in the current context, Planning Analytics AI assistant prompts you for clarification. For example, the command "convert exploration to chart" is somewhat ambiguous, as it does not specify a chart type. The assistant prompts you to specify which type of chart you want and then completes your request.

Assistant message indicating that you must be in edit mode
Tip: If your command includes a reference to a specific object or artifact, it's helpful to enclose the item name in double quotes. This helps Planning Analytics AI assistant determine your intent and identify the item you want to work with.

You can use Planning Analytics AI assistant to change the configuration of a view, open a view on a different database, open a dimension or set, perform member calculations, suppress zeroes, and more.

Remember, a command specifies a single action; you can't issue a compound command to perform multiple actions. For example, the command "open the Revenue cube and suppress zeroes" won't work.

Here's a cheat sheet to help you start using Planning Analytics AI assistant. It shows all the actions that you can perform with the assistant.

Notice that there are multiple ways to express most commands. The assistant recognizes synonyms for most actions, so you're not limited to one specific command construct. Experiment with commands, knowing that the assistant will prompt for clarification if a command is ambiguous.

Action Definition of action Command examples Needs object/widget selected?
Cancel Cancel the current operation.

Cancel

Quit

 No
Collapse Collapse a consolidation. Collapse "Total year" Yes
Copy Copy the selected widget.

Copy

Duplicate

 Yes
Create sandbox Create a sandbox.

Create sandbox "prev_2024"

Sandbox

 Yes
Display zeroes Display zeroes previously suppressed.

Display zeroes on rows

Show 0 rows

Display zeroes on rows

 Yes
Expand Expand a consolidation.

Expand "Total year"

Drill "Canada"

 Yes
Hide Hide a member(s) from rows or columns.

Hide "Jan", "Feb"

Don't show the "Overhead" member

Yes
Keep Keep only the specified member(s) on the view.

Keep "Jan", "Feb"

Members to keep: "Washington", "California"

 Yes
List Shows all the specified objects on a database. You can list cubes, dimensions, sets, and views.

List cubes

List dimensions

 No
Move Move a dimension/hierarchy to a slot in a view.

Move "Version" to rows

Transfer "Channel" to bench

Relocate "Model" to columns

 Yes
Open Open one of these Planning Analytics objects:
  • Cube (default view)
  • Exploration (view)
  • Dimension
  • Hierarchy
  • Set

Open dim "Org"

Open "Asset Life" view

Show the "Marketing" set

Edit the "Employee" hierarchy

 No
Perform member calculation

Perform calculations on specified members.

The supported calculations are:
  • Absolute value
  • Aggregate
  • Average
  • Division
  • Maximum
  • Median
  • Minimum
  • Multiplication
  • Percent change
  • Percent of
  • Percent parent
  • Percent total
  • Rank
  • Subtraction
  • Summation

Calculate average for members "Jan", "Feb"

Create maximum for members "Q1", "Q2"

Calculate minimum for members "Q1", "Q2"

 Yes
Redo Redo a book action.

Redo

 No
Refresh Refresh a view.

Refresh

Reload view

 Yes
Select database Set the search context for the Open actions in the book.

Select database 24Retail and Planning Sample

Work with "Planning Sample"

Set "24Retail" as database

 No
Show databases Display the databases currently being searched.

What is my search context?

What is the current db?

 No
Slice Switch the context of a view to a specific member.

Slice on "Canada"

Change context to "Budget"

 Yes
Summarize all Create a calculation of all rows or columns.

Calculate average on rows

Show sum on columns

Aggregate rows as "MyTotal"

 Yes
Suppress zeroes Suppress zeroes on the view.

Suppress zeroes on rows

Hide 0 rows

Remove cols with value 0

 Yes
Swap Swap rows and columns in a view.

Swap

Switch

Flip rows and columns

 Yes
Switch to sandbox Switch to an existing sandbox.

Switch to "Base" sandbox

Change sandbox to "MyProjections"

 Yes
Switch visualization Switch the visualization to a different type.

Switch to pie chart for "sales"

Convert to chart

Switch to exploration

 Yes
Unhide all Display all hidden members.

Unhide all

Show all rows

Uncover columns		 Yes
Undo Undo a book action.

Undo

 No