AI for Business Intelligence: Beyond Text-to-SQL

AI-powered “chat with your data” tools are everywhere, but most people who know how to ask data questions don’t really need text-to-SQL tools. They can just write SQL or use a query builder. The bigger challenge isn’t answering questions – it’s surfacing important insights before users even think to ask. 

That’s where Generative Business Intelligence comes in. At Narrative BI, we focus on proactive, AI-driven analytics that continuously scan your data, find key insights, and deliver them in natural language narratives. Our goal is to make data insights radically easier to access and act on, not just easier to query.

Many decision-makers struggle with traditional BI tools or text-to-SQL solutions, not because they don't need data, but because:

• Technical barriers: writing SQL or understanding complex dashboards isn’t their strength.
• Data semantic challenges:  knowing which table, metric, or dimension to query requires deep familiarity with the data model.
• Complex interfaces: many BI tools assume a level of proficiency that most knowledge workers simply don’t have.
• Dependency on data teams: Even for simple questions, many teams rely on data analysts because accessing the right data, preparing it, and visualizing insights often require technical expertise. This in turn creates bottlenecks and slows down decision-making.

Yet these same knowledge workers are making critical business decisions every day. They need effortless access to data insights, not a steep learning curve.

At Narrative BI, we focus on proactive analytics (while giving user contextual ad-hoc options). Narrative BI flips the traditional model of business intelligence on its head.

Instead of waiting for users to check dashboards or ask the right questions, our AI engine proactively:

• Integrates data from all your sources with simple two-click connectors
• Continuously scans the data to spot patterns, anomalies and changes
• Identifies the key trends, outliers and insights you need to know about
• Translates the data into easy-to-understand natural language narratives
• Alerts you to important shifts in your metrics so you can take action

With two-click integrations and Semantic Layer, even non-technical users can start using it effortlessly. Natural language insights are generated and delivered automatically, meeting decision-makers where they are. The goal is to make data insights easier to access, not just easier to query.

As AI rapidly advances, we believe the future of business intelligence is not just conversational Q&A, but proactive, personalized insights powered by machine learning.

In our recent releases, we’ve also introduced AI Agents to our platform. Here’s what they do well:

• Spotting patterns and anomalies automatically
• Reducing the manual work of preparing, cleaning, transforming and analyzing data
• Auto-generated data visualizations and presentations
• Translating complex data into natural language-written summaries

The real power of AI and machine learning is in augmenting human intelligence - spotting patterns we might miss, reducing manual data wrangling, and elevating insights to the surface before we even ask. The future of BI isn’t just about answering questions - it’s about making insights easier to access and act on.

This shift from reactive to proactive analytics, from dashboards to data narratives, has the potential to fundamentally transform how organizations leverage data. We're excited to be at the forefront of this generative BI revolution.