Tableau is one of the foremost business intelligence (BI) tools enterprises employ. This market-leading analysis tool was built with the idea of helping people see and understand data better. Tableau holds the biggest chunk of the USD 22 Billion Business Intelligence market, with a 12.97% share. It has been the market leader for nine years in the business analytics space. Tableau continues to dominate with effective integrations, cutting-edge technology, and just “better ways of seeing data,” as they put it.
Recently, it launched the first update of 2022, dubbed Tableau 2022.1. This blog will summarize the latest features within this update and the newly incorporated AI-powered business intelligence capabilities.
Enhancements for Explain Data and Ask Data
Two primary modules within the business intelligence software are Explain Data and Ask Data. The former has provided businesses with insights into why trends are moving the way they are and what might be influencing them.
Now, Tableau has incorporated AI with Explain Data to sort the datasets in a more advanced manner. Instead of using the entire dataset to provide deep insights, the AI algorithms can now spot trends and outliers accurately. Thereby steering decision-makers to better explanations for business performance.
Ask Data, another capability within Tableau, is a genuinely revolutionary BI feature. With Ask Data, users can phrase questions in their own language, and Tableau will use the data to answer their questions. This feature uses Natural Language Processing (NLP), advanced autocorrect, and synonym recognition to understand users’ questions. After this, the Ask Data capability fetches Data that can best answer the query.
It is a beneficial tool for decision-makers who do not have to set up multiple filters or learn to code. All they have to do is form meaningful inquiries, and by simply asking, Tableau will help them interpret the data.
Ask Data Phrase Builder
Another innovation with the Ask Data feature is the Phrase Builder. Keeping true to Tableau’s motto of simplifying data, if designing a question seems too challenging, the phrase builder provides suggestions to users.
Along with suggestions, users can choose filters, type in and use autofill to quickly create targeted questions that can derive insights benefitting the business. The interface has been designed intuitively to give a streamlined click-through experience so that even novices can use Tableau to explore and understand data.
Integration with Salesforce Einstein Discovery
Tableau has linked with Salesforce to make use of their Einstein technology while also providing Salesforce users the unique benefits of Tableau. Einstein Discovery is Salesforce’s business analysis and insight tool that helps them sort, study, and respond to statistics from customers.
After Tableau’s integration with Salesforce, Einstein Discovery will allow Salesforce to generate business reports based on customer data. The reports will be complete with Einstein technology’s in-depth data review. It will be specialized for interpreting customer information and Tableau’s intuitive and captivating reporting features.
Tableau has also incorporated its Ask Data feature into Salesforce, thereby enabling users to ask questions from CRM data and get detailed statistics and analyses as answers. The natural language processing feature is a first for Salesforce and will enhance the dashboards, reports, and business recommendations users get from the customer relationship management tool.
Workbook Optimizer
This is a brand-new feature released in the 2022.1 build that Tableau launched in March 2022. The workbook optimizer intends to solve the performance issues that Tableau users complain about. Developers have given users the control, and access, to understand why processes might be more prolonged, and users can then choose to fix issues for optimization based on their preferences.
The workbook optimizer lets users have control over the following actions:
- Controlling empty or unused fields. Users can hide the unused fields in the data to generate faster reports.
- Shifting calculations from the Tableau reporting stage to the Tableau Prep stage. Calculations running in the foreground cause dashboards to slow.
- Triggers for opening too many views. It is never ideal to have uncountable views open at the same time. The triggers will prompt you to close the idle tabs.
- Alerting unused data sources. This helps save precious processing power and optimize the system.
Revamped Search Option
Tableau has made significant UI/UX design changes to the search as well as multiple functional redesigns. The search overall feels like a smoother experience. The BI tool allows search content to sort according to users’ criteria or AI. Users can rank results according to popularity, relevance, and creation time.
The new search results are now seen as bubbles, which is a simple design yet is sophisticated as the bubbles provide a quick summary, group with other similar search entries, and are easy to read through. Users can also apply new filters in the search now.
Extended Range of Dashboard Accelerators
Dashboard Accelerators are pre-built dashboards that Tableau can quickly create. Over 100 such templates exist on the BI tool, and the variety is now even greater. Users need to select the type of dashboard they want, determine the data source, and in a matter of minutes, they’ll have an operational dashboard.
The latest dashboard accelerators in the 2022.1 version include email campaigns, service requests, accounts receivable, and covering claims. Users can leverage accelerators to generate dashboards with a few clicks and dive straight into the decision-making phase.
Conclusion
Tableau is a market leader and trendsetter with its clever use of AI, ML, NLP, and other Industry 4.0 technologies. It provides an unparalleled experience to the world of business intelligence and will continue to leave the competition behind with this rate of research and innovation.
Tableau is the BI tool of choice for Mega Corporations, as well as Startups and SMEs who use the affordable versions of Tableau. It has packages for all sorts of organizations to suit their budgetary needs.
Xavor Corporation is a Software Solutions company and has been providing support for Tableau for over two decades. Xavor empowers businesses to install and optimize this insights visualization tool in their existing infrastructure to simplify, analyze and make quicker business decisions.
We have worked with clients from various industries and helped them shape their raw data in an easily understandable format so that they can turn valuable insights into actions.
Learn more about Xavor’s data analytics and visualization services here.