Tableau Conference 2023: A New Era of Analytics Democratization
If I had to describe Tableau Conference 2023 (TC23) with one overarching theme, I’d say it was “democratizing analytics” — a concept that asks for organizations to empower employees at all levels to use analytics for decision-making, rather than limiting it to a few specialized data experts. Democratizing analytics is ultimately about access and ease of use. It’s about making insights accessible to all who want them, to drive decisions and produce better outcomes.
Increasing the availability of insights has been the core aim of BI companies and analytics practitioners alike for the last two decades, with tremendous strides made in those years. We have seen the rise of easier-to-use visual analytics tools like Tableau’s SaaS analytics offerings that are easier to deploy and maintain like Tableau Cloud, and more user-accessible AI like Einstein Discovery. However, the reality is that some users will never be comfortable using dashboards or traditional visual analytics.
However, most users are comfortable having a conversation or asking a question. Below, I’ll dive into some of the biggest announcements from TC23 and discuss how these will help organizations democratize their analytics like never before.
The big reveal: Tableau Pulse
The big announcement at Tableau Conference was Tableau Pulse, powered by Tableau GPT. Tableau Pulse is a complete re-envisioning of the analytics experience. It will shift Tableau from being a visual analytics brand to being an intelligent experience / data platform brand that includes visual analytics.
What does Tableau Pulse look like?
Rather than working with dashboards, users gain access to insights through embeddable pages that share key metrics, with easily readable explanations of what the visualizations “mean” and the “why” behind the metric. Users that want to go deeper can explore insights by clicking on auto-generated follow-up questions that are presented based on the data being analyzed and see prompts of similar questions users have asked in the past. Clicking on the question text will provide more detailed visualizations and narrative explanations of what users are seeing — including the biggest drivers behind the answers (a.k.a. the “why”).
Users that want to ask a different question will be able to use the new Tableau GPT capability that underpins Tableau Pulse and includes natural language query capability. They can also easily loop others into the conversation via Slack or email with messages produced by Tableau GPT, for rapid collaboration — all from a single unified interface.
While it won’t be generally available until sometime in 2023, Tableau Pulse and Tableau GPT represent a much more user-centric, democratized, and accessible way of thinking about data insights. The new capabilities offer Tableau a point of differentiation from the competition and are a real improvement for analytics users.
The future of the cloud
A huge point of focus this year was Tableau Cloud — Tableau’s SaaS analytics offering. In addition to being a more modern data architecture, part of the emphasis on migrating to Tableau Cloud is to help customers prepare for newer cloud-based features, such as Tableau Pulse. Tableau Cloud offers some significant improvements over on-premises implementations (no more patching servers or applying updates, etc.), and SaaS cloud-based offerings are clearly the future direction for Tableau.
Introducing Headless BI
Another exciting area of development is VizQL and enhancements to Tableau’s embedded capability that will allow for headless BI. These enhancements will enable developers to embed Tableau in ways that are more responsive and create more seamlessly integrated digital experiences that include direct access to the Tableau query engine for embedded applications and sites. As analytics become more ubiquitous in digital applications and websites, these new embedded capabilities will provide devs more control and users better experiences.
Salesforce Data Cloud integration
A hot topic at the conference was how Tableau interacts with Salesforce Data Cloud. Data Cloud is Salesforce’s real-time, hyperscale customer data platform that evolved from Salesforce CDP. Designed to enable organizations to provide customers with more personalized and impactful engagement and experiences, it works by harmonizing customer data from a multitude of sources. Those can include an organization’s first-party data, such as customer profiles, purchase history, social, web interactions, text, email responses, and potentially third-party data from external sources. This data is then used by Salesforce products to deliver more personalized and engaging interactions in marketing, sales, and service. Of course, you need a way to visualize, explore, and measure the customer data within Data Cloud, which is where Tableau comes in. Data Cloud will have federated query capabilities with Snowflake, Salesforce, and other cloud-based data providers and will make use of Tableau to generate the visualization and data exploration capabilities.
A bold vision for the future of analytics
TC23 showcased a bold vision for the future of analytics. Tableau demonstrated its commitment to democratizing analytics and making insights more accessible to all users. With innovations like Tableau Pulse, and a shift of focus toward modern, cloud-based and user-focused solutions, Tableau is setting a course to differentiate itself from competitors by going beyond traditional analytics. With its unique vision and differentiated products, Tableau is poised to lead the charge toward a future where analytics are truly accessible to all.
Slalom is a global consulting firm that helps people and organizations dream bigger, move faster, and build better tomorrows for all. If you want help figuring out how to do more with Tableau, visit us at Tableau | Slalom.
