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Creating your first AI Analyst

Use this checklist to go from a connected database to an AI Analyst your team can use. For step-by-step detail, see Getting started in Studio.

Availability

  • Who can do this: members with the Edit capability in the active Workspace (for example from the Editor or Administrator preset).
  • Deployment: Actian SaaS and self-managed deployments. Slack and Teams are not available on air-gapped self-managed deployments.

Quick steps

  1. Pick your Workspace. Models and AI Analysts belong to the active Workspace, and connections are attached to Workspaces. If you have more than one, choose it from the organization switcher at the top of the sidebar.
  2. Connect your data. Go to Connections → Add connection and set up your data source with a read-only user. See Connect a data source.
  3. Create a model. Go to Models → New model and choose With Steward (it opens the Steward panel with a starter prompt: describe the table, send it and approve the changes), From Table or From SQL. Refine its dimensions and measures. See Creating models.
  4. Create the AI Analyst. Go to AI Analysts → Create Analyst, enter a Name and click Create.
  5. Set up the AI Analyst.
    1. On the Overview tab, add a Description so people know when to use it.
    2. On the Models tab, click Edit on the Access Mode card and choose Choose specific models (then tick the models), Models with any of these tags or All models except these tags (then pick Tags). Click Save changes.
    3. On the Instructions tab, give it clear guidance on its focus and how to answer. See Instructions.
  6. Test and refine. Ask questions in the Test your analyst panel on the right of the analyst page (if it's closed, click Open test panel at the right edge). Refine your models and instructions until the answers look right.
  7. Deploy your AI Analyst. New analysts are drafts that business users can't see. Open the Not deployed dropdown in the analyst header and choose:
    • Explorer, then pick Specific users or Everyone (every member of this Workspace) in the Deploy to Explorer dialog and click Save.
    • Slack or Teams. If the channel isn't installed yet, you're taken to Connections to add it first. See Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Your AI Analyst needs a connected language model to answer. If no language model is connected for your organization, conversations (including tests) are blocked. Ask someone with Manage inference to connect one under Settings → Inference.