The top augmented analytics tools vendors are offering

Alteryx

Alteryx is a platform for enterprise analytics that can automate analytics and provide actionable insights on data. Its features include Auto Insights and Location Intelligence. Auto Insights surfaces automated insights and hidden signals in data that may have been overlooked. Location Intelligence helps users find, prepare and enrich spatial data sources to deliver location-based insights.

Alteryx developed an AI engine called AiDIN that combines generative AI and machine learning (ML) with its analytics platform. AiDIN aims to automate repetitive content creation tasks and help users quickly generate text-based content including predictions, patterns, recommendations and what-if scenarios. For example, it can automatically draft a customized summary of data insights to share with others.

In G2's Best Analytics Software Products for 2024 report, Alteryx ranked third among analytics platforms. It has highly favorable reviews from customers on G2 praising its ease of use, the quality of ongoing product support and new feature development.

Domo

Domo defines itself as a data experience platform, which is the foundation for advanced analytics capabilities. Features include augmented analytics in the form of intuitive dashboards, advanced data interactivity and customizability, and AI-generated insights that enable users of all skill levels to accelerate decision-making.

Domo can expand its capabilities with an AI framework. Two features -- AI Chat and Universal Models -- are currently in beta development. AI Chat gives customers the ability to hold contextual conversations with their data. Universal Models provides users with accessible AI models that could be useful in a variety of situations.

Domo was named a challenger in Gartner's 2023 Magic Quadrant report for its high product score for data scientist and analyst use cases.

IBM Cognos Analytics

IBM Cognos Analytics offers a variety of advanced augmented analytics features that enable users to make data-driven decisions faster with AI-powered insights. Main features include a built-in natural language AI assistant to improve data blending, interactive dashboards and reports. Self-service analytics helps uncover insights and provides automatically generated decision trees with predictive forecasting.

Cognos Analytics features a guided user interface with advanced caching and natural language generation. It provides guided tours for users, enabling them to create dashboards. The enhanced caching technology allows for faster data filtering. Natural language generation enables users to input queries and receive insights in plain language.

Ventana Research, part of ISG, classified IBM Cognos Analytics as exemplary, ranking it third and designating it as an overall leader due to its performance in product experience, usability, reliability and customer experience.

Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is a unified platform for self-service analytics that features advanced AI capabilities and insights. One of its biggest advantages over competitors is its ability to integrate with Microsoft 365 apps, including Teams, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Users can seamlessly pull data from across an organization, visualize it and embed the visuals into the apps many users interact with on a daily basis.

In May 2023, Microsoft launched Microsoft Fabric, which brings next-generation augmented analytics tools to Power BI users. It includes an AI assistant, called Copilot, that can help users create reports and identify what charts, tables and fields to include.

In 2023, Gartner named Microsoft as a leader in the Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. It ranked highest for its completeness of vision and its ability to execute it, largely due to Power BI's cross-utilization capabilities with the Microsoft apps suite.

Oracle Analytics

The Oracle Analytics platform integrates with Oracle Cloud infrastructure, delivering self-service and governed analytics to users. Its features include strong data visualization and storytelling functionality; a code-free, drag-and-drop interface; enterprise-level data modeling; and intelligent data enrichment.

Oracle integrated a variety of new AI capabilities into its analytics platform. For example, users can take advantage of a generative AI (GenAI) service within the platform to customize and use large language models for everything from text summarization to vector representations.

Gartner's 2023 Magic Quadrant report categorized Oracle as a visionary. The report highlighted Oracle's augmented capabilities, stating the features are advancing integrated graph analytics and enhancing the explainability of ML models. Oracle Analytics Cloud also supports natural language queries in 28 languages.

Pyramid Analytics

The Pyramid Platform uses AI, ML and natural language processing (NLP) to bring automated data science to non-technical end users. Its features include automated data explanations that provide descriptive analysis of data drivers, an Auto Discover tool that finds correlations and patterns in data, and a Smart Insights feature that renders query analyses in plain text.

In 2023, Pyramid Analytics integrated OpenAI's engine, bringing the power of ChatGPT to its augmented analytics capabilities. Users can enrich analytics with natural language prompts to generate text explanations for data into context that non-technical users can understand. For example, a business user could use ChatGPT to generate designs for storyboards or graphics geared toward a particular audience.

In Gartner's 2023 Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms report, Pyramid ranked highest for augmented consumer and business analyst use cases. Gartner's report noted that Pyramid is intuitive and easy to use for business users of all skill levels, helping them maximize value from data.

Qlik

Qlik offers augmented analytics capabilities including automated insight generation, natural language interaction and GenAI that make insights more accessible. These features make it easier for users to obtain highly relevant insights, search for data using plain language, and explore data trends and patterns.

Qlik AutoML is an advanced feature for analytics users that can enhance AI-generated ML models and predictive analytics. It simplifies the process of deploying and refining ML models. It can visualize predictions and explain to users why it identified specific predictions.

Qlik is noted as a leader in Gartner's 2023 Magic Quadrant report for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms. The report recognized Qlik's Augmented Authoring, a feature that creates AI-generated dashboards with natural language inputs. Qlik was also celebrated for its open API, enabling organizations to avoid vendor lock-in from their cloud provider and freely connect with other data sources and applications.

SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud is an analytics and planning platform that features GenAI, BI capabilities that can deliver industry-specific analytics, and data-driven simulations and forecasting. SAP's GenAI copilot, Joule, helps users sort through and contextualize data. Joule can also auto-generate custom scripts to extend dashboards for broader insights.

In practice, SAP drives efficiency, visibility and versatility through dynamic data reports in real time. SAP continues to expand its AI capabilities. In 2024, it launched a next-generation natural language query feature, adding the ability to understand predictive forecasts and automate what-if simulations for planning purposes.

The 2023 BARC Score Enterprise BI & Analytics Platforms report identified SAP as a market leader. BARC evaluates vendors in the market on a broad criteria comprising BI and analytics needs. It highlighted SAP Analytics Cloud for its strong feature set -- particularly its predictive analytics capabilities.

Sisense

The Sisense platform boasts a variety of advanced augmented analytics features that can integrate into an organization's data operations. Key features include ML models, AI insights and an analytics engine that powers data applications, visualizes data in the form a user wants, and helps provide more accurate insights and decision-making.

In 2024, Sisense launched Fusion Compose SDK, a developer toolkit that can enrich software development. The tool enables users to embed context-aware analytics into their products. They can build native data-driven applications and create fully custom analytics in the form of data charts, filters and visualizations.

G2 recognized Sisense as a leader in its 2023 Grid for Embedded BI Software report. Sisense has consistently ranked high for customer satisfaction and market presence, and because of that, its tools have a sterling reputation.

Tableau

Tableau, from Salesforce, provides augmented analytics capabilities to help business users get answers and uncover insights with technology such as ML, NLP and smart data preparation. For example, users can access an Ask Data feature to use natural language to interact with data. Typing a question shows guided search suggestions and returns results in easy-to-digest data visualizations.

Tableau continues to integrate and experiment with more AI capabilities, many of which are driven by the Einstein Copilot, an AI assistant. For example, Tableau can use generative AI to provide smart suggestions and in-product guidance, as well as explain the why behind data with contextual insights.

In 2023, Forrester named Tableau as a Leader in The Forrester Wave for Augmented Business Intelligence Platforms report, noting the platform's ability to broaden the reach of analytics to decision-makers of all skill levels.

Jacob Roundy is a freelance writer and editor, specializing in a variety of technology topics, including data centers and sustainability.