2 weeks Ago By Antony Savvas
Cloud data management firm Sigma has taken the wraps off various new AI technologies and integrations, in the hopes of pitching them to organizations looking to protect their data and squeeze operational results from it. The intelligent tools are meant to clean and model data, with the aim of delivering consistency in calculations. Two new AI features in Sigma are Explain Viz and Formula Assistant.
Explain Viz uses the customer’s connected AI to automatically generate a “clear and concise” description of any chart, highlighting key insights, observations, and data summaries. The feature helps users quickly understand the “story” behind their data, saving time and effort in interpreting complex visualizations. Formula Assistant leverages the customer’s AI models to help users create new formulas, correct errors in existing ones, and provide explanations for formulas used in workbooks and data models, making it easier to work with complex data.
The feature streamlines the formula-building process, reduces errors, and increases productivity for users of all skill levels, says Sigma. The firm has also announced a new integration with Glean, an enterprise search tool that connects an organisation’s entire workflow. With “just two clicks,” says Sigma, users can search Glean within Sigma, instantly accessing unstructured data like Slack threads, Google Docs, Jira tickets, and more.
The integration eliminates the need to jump between systems, empowering users to find solutions faster and work more efficiently by connecting Sigma’s structured insights with the context that lives elsewhere. Sigma is also announcing the expansion of OAuth coverage with write access for Snowflake and other platforms. This makes Sigma the first data analytics platform to offer OAuth for write access to , we are told.
It expands OAuth support to enable secure write-back from a Sigma input table to a Snowflake data warehouse. In addition, customers can use OAuth with Databricks connections for centralized user access management between Sigma and Databricks, to provide greater security and decrease administrator time investment. OAuth support is provided for input tables, write-back, warehouse views, materializations, and CSV uploads.
On top of these enhancements, it has revealed Sigma BI Analyst by Hakkoda, a native app that will assess a company’s usage of a legacy BI tool on Snowflake, and show them potential cost savings with Sigma. Currently “shared via private listings,” Sigma BI Analyst can show users information like workbook statistics, data source patterns in workbooks, and license utilization. Select users will be able to input how much they’re paying for viewer licenses and compare that to free Sigma Lite licenses.
The app also uses Snowflake Cortex AI to recommend formula syntax changes between BI tools. “We’re partnering with Sigma to simplify the migration process for enterprises looking to modernize their business intelligence and sunset legacy BI tools,” said Erik Duffield, CEO of Hakkoda. Finally, Sigma has released a data connector to Microsoft Azure, to enable secure communications between the Sigma platform and an Azure cloud data warehouse.
“With our latest enhancements, we’ve made it easier than ever for business users to define their metrics without writing a single line of code. By delivering flexibility, speed, and seamless integration with the broader data ecosystem, Sigma allows users to trust both the data and the process,” added Mike Palmer, Sigma CEO..
