Business Intelligence and Analytics
Winner:
Tableau Software Ask Data
Business analytics firm Tableau, now owned by Salesforce, has added natural language capabilities to its platforms in a move to boost its adoption by a wider audience of business users. With the Ask Data natural language solution, Tableau makes it possible for users to query data in a conversational manner—such as by typing the question "What were our sales in 2017?" and getting an interactive visual response. That makes it easier for more users to engage with the business analytics platform, ultimately developing analytical insight without the need to learn data dimensions, structures or measures.
Finalist:
IBM Watson Studio with AutoAI
Via the addition of AutoAI capabilities to Watson Studio, IBM provides automated analysis of data in order to enable predictive modeling. Model pipelines are generated over time—as the AutoAI algorithms learn about the datasets and uncover transformations and settings that will best address the scenario.