Google has taken one more step in the democratization of data analytics.
It has launched a service called Data QnA that enables self-service analytics for business users on BigQuery data as well as federated data from Cloud Storage, Bigtable, Cloud SQL, or Google Drive. Users can ask free-form text questions like, “What was the growth of product xyz last month?” and get answers interactively.
Google announced on its official blog that Data QnA was now natively available through Google Sheets and BigQuery UI. Data QnA API can be used to embed it in other interfaces. In addition, it can be integrated “into experiences built with Google Dialogflow. Data QnA enforces all underlying customer-defined data access policies, automatically restricting access of data to the right users.”
Essentially, what this new service does is allow users to formulate free-form text analytical questions in human language. Then, both an English interpretation and the SQL query are returned with the answer. “Did-you-mean” clarifications are returned if a question is ambiguous. When using the BigQuery Web UI, Data QnA also enables data analysts to formulate SQL queries using natural language questions.
It is found that in most enterprises, when business users need data, they request a dashboard or report from the BI team, and it can take days, or even weeks, for the already overloaded team to respond. When the users get those answers, they are often not able to get an answer to the next question, as that would require yet another report. Self-service access to analytics when users need it, without requiring deep technical knowledge, can improve productivity and business outcomes dramatically.
Data QnA aims to change all that.
Data QnA is available at no additional cost for BigQuery customers. All underlying queries and storage are charged as per the customer’s BigQuery costs, said Google.
Access in Sheets is through its Connected Sheets feature, which is included in G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite Enterprise Essentials, and Data QnA is included for no additional cost. Data QnA is available for BigQuery data in the U.S. and EU, with support for more regions to follow.
Image credit: Google Cloud