In preview now: IBM watsonx BI is your business insight agent

21 May 2024

3 min read

Author

Kasun Attanapola

Product Management & Engineering leader

IBM Data & AI

The business intelligence (BI) software market is projected to surge to USD 27.9 billion by 2027, yet only 30% of employees use these tools for decision-making. This gap between investment and usage highlights a significant missed opportunity.

The primary hurdle in adopting BI tools is their complexity. Traditional BI tools, while powerful, are often too complex and slow for effective decision-making. Business decision-makers need insights tailored to their specific business contexts, not complex dashboards that are difficult to navigate. Organizations currently rely on many data analysts to manage and interpret data, creating dashboards and other BI assets for analytics consumers. This requirement creates significant bottlenecks, reducing productivity and stalling BI adoption. Generative AI is set to change this dynamic.

Gartner® predicts that by 2027, generative AI will automate 40% of data and analytics spending in cloud ecosystems. These AI-driven tools will use natural language interfaces to identify hidden cost drivers and streamline complexity.

We’ve developed the watsonx BI to address this. This innovative tool simplifies BI by enabling business users to interact with complex data systems by using intuitive natural language. With watsonx BI, organizations empower all business users to make better decisions, faster.

watsonx BI surfaces actionable insights in seconds so you can increase decision making speed

watsonx BI uses generative AI to integrate seamlessly into your business operations, enabling you to ask questions in natural language and receive personalized and contextual insights instantly. The platform’s AI innovations, such as semantic automation and reasoning, sift through your data to identify patterns, uncover relationships and interpret business significance.

Whether making tactical business decisions or exploring strategic opportunities, you can rely on watsonx BI for actionable insights with strict adherence to data integrity and privacy standards.

Why watsonx BI?

1. Provides insights with smart alerts and prompts

Receive finely tuned, fast business answers relevant to your context. watsonx BI analyzes industry-specific data and operational requirements to deliver highly personalized insights. For example, as a sales manager alerted about an uptick in leads but decreased revenue due to falling win rates, you can immediately propose a buy-now offer and review the lead conversion process.

2. Enhances clarity and trust with clear reasoning

Clear reasoning provides a direct path from data input to insight output, helping you uncover the “why” behind your insights and identify new growth opportunities. For example, if you, as an operations manager, notice a critical inventory shortfall, watsonx BI confirms that this trend is consistent and not an anomaly, prompting timely adjustments to delivery plans to avoid revenue loss and penalties.

3. Delivers deeper understanding with AI designed for business

The platform, built with large language models (LLMs) by IBM trained on enterprise-relevant content, adheres to strict data governance and regulatory criteria. It interprets your questions in everyday business language, making data interaction intuitive and enabling you to confidently explore complex business queries. The answers provided are not only relevant but also tailored to fit your business context.

Also, watsonx BI automates the creation of business semantics, enhancing your data’s narrative by clarifying its meaning within your business context. This enhancement makes it easier for you to understand the significance of each data point and see how it fits into the bigger picture of your operations. The platform makes complex analysis accessible and meaningful, helping you grasp the full scope of your business landscape with ease.

4. Boosts confidence with a proactive partner founded on trusted data and AI

watsonx BI is built on the pillars of governance, reliability and transparency, enhancing all AI workflows. This platform streamlines your analytics journey by integrating insights from various tools and data sources. Its semantic data layer provides enterprise-level governance, offers a metrics catalog for consistent cross-organizational reporting, and supports an open interface to promote interoperability. watsonx BI is the next generation of business intelligence, empowering business users with insights for confident, rapid decision-making.