Zoho Updates Zoho Analytics

Zoho today launched a new version of Zoho Analytics, its self-service business intelligence and analytics platform.

Among more than 100 enhancements, Zoho Analytics offers new artificial intelligence capabilities, enabling diagnostic insights, predictive analysis, and automated report and dashboard generation. Additional advancements to Zoho Analytics include a custom machine learning model-building studio, seamless integration with Open AI, and third-party BI platform extensions.

"Zoho Analytics launched in 2009 as Zoho Reports, long before technology had caught up to Zoho's vision for business intelligence," said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho, in a statement. "Since then, Zoho has made considerable investments around automation, no-code/low-code development, third-party integration, machine learning, and Zia, Zoho's in-house AI engine. The latest version of Zoho Analytics is one of the first solutions from the company that takes advantage of every one of these decades-long investments. The result is a democratized platform that is powerful, intelligent, flexible, and simple to use."

The latest version of Zoho Analytics has advanced across data management, AI, data science and machine learning, and extensibility.

Zoho Analytics has expanded its data management capabilities. Key data management additions to Zoho Analytics are as follows:

• Stream Analytics and 25 other data connectors to its connector portfolio.
• The ability to create end-to-end data pipelines using Zoho Analytics' visual builder; build custom AI models using the platform's Python Code Studio; transform data using natural language with Ask Zia, Zoho's AI copilot; access an automatic versioning system and new Sandbox environment; and orchestrate data pipelines using Zoho Flow.
• Unified Metrics Layer, which enables users to define, standardize, monitor, access control, and catalog all business metrics in a single pane. The platform also extends to serve in a headless BI mode, allowing data apps to consume the same metrics in real time.

Zoho Analytics' new generative AI capabilities include the following:

• Diagnostic Analysis with Zia Insights.
• Ask Zia, Zoho's natural language querying AI copilot, now understands Spanish and French, and supports IM channels, including Microsoft Teams.
• Auto Analysis, enabling AI-powered automated metrics, reports, and dashboard generation.
• OpenAI integration enabled by retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and OpenAI APIs with BYOK to help users find public datasets and create formula and SQL queries.

Zoho Analytics now features the Data Science and Machine Language (DSML) Studio, allowing users to build custom machine learning models, with the following capabilities:

• AutoML, a no-code assistant to build custom ML models with feature engineering, hyperparameter tuning, and comprehensive model analysis.
• Code Studio, the platform's integrated Python code environment where users can create custom ML models and import Python models or externally built libraries, which can be executed within the platform.

Zoho Analytics is more deeply extensible, allowing businesses to sync and standardize data stored across multiple tools and platforms for comprehensive analysis and insights. The following are additional key extensibility developments:

• A new BI fabric that enables businesses to consolidate insights from multiple BI platforms, such as Microsoft's Power BI and Salesforce's Tableau, onto one analytics portal. Access to the portal can be controlled with fine-grained access permissions.
• The ability to trigger actionable workflows, including URL and Webhook actions through integrations with Zoho Flow, enabling more than 500 app triggers.
• No-code data connector builder, allowing users to create custom connectors to bring data from any custom application. Partners can also build data connectors that can be published and sold on Zoho Marketplace.

The new Zoho Analytics release features more than 100 updates, including  visualizations, enhanced dashboard building, audit and admin controls, revamped mobile apps, Right-to-Left (RTL) support, and more.