November Lead Off Edition ⚾

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Thoughtspot

What is it: ThoughtSpot just launched Spotter with the big promise of outshining its competitors. The secret sauce? A search token (basically labels) powered by relational search, which makes its LLM better at turning text into SQL. Plus, it adds a layer of explainability to AI search results, helping business users actually understand the SQL behind the magic. According to ThoughtSpot, this means more accurate answers for everyone.

Why it matters: AI in BI is everywhere, but ThoughtSpot took its time to deliver something that tackles two big issues with current LLMs: explainability and accuracy. It’s a thoughtful, user-focused approach, and we’re excited to see where this goes!

Databricks

What is it: Databricks is continuing to shore up its AI/BI Dashboards with some notable features, including multi page report experience for splitting analysis across pages. This feature is expected to improve page load performance, with data only being refreshed for visuals on the current page.

Genie (Databricks’ AI assistant) has also been integrated into AI/BI dashboards allowing users to ask follow up questions for the data underpinning the dashboards. Users need to have access to the underlying tables for the feature to work.

Genie will receive a ton of updates in the coming months…but don’t take our word for it. These updates were promised by Databricks during their Data+AI World Tour in Toronto (check out our event section to never miss such events).

Another feature of note is Dashboard Integration with Databricks Asset Bundles or DABs. This enables Dashboards to be version controlled and achieve a software development best practice - CI/CD. In essence, it will allow multiple developers to work in conjunction on the same dashboard, eliminating the need for any workarounds. This is a great addition, considering version control and CI/CD is an afterthought in a lot of BI products!

Check out all the features here.

Why is it relevant: Multi-page reports and Genie are nice, but the DAB integration? That’s a game-changer for BI tools, bringing software dev best practices like version control into the mix.

dbt

What is it: dbt semantic layer integration with Excel has been made Generally available. You can now query your semantic layer by downloading dbt’s Excel add-in from Appsource inside Microsoft Excel. Queries to your models can be customized, thanks to the GUI interface of the add-in. You can control Metrics, Group by, Time Range, Where (Filters), Order By (Sort), and Limit (number of rows returned) parameters for your query.

Oh, and here’s a cool one: dbt Explorer now has auto exposures for Tableau! This means you can easily track the full lineage of your dataset all the way to its downstream uses. It’s a big win for anyone trying to make sense of their data flow—it simplifies monitoring and tackles one of the biggest pain points of semantic layers: understanding downstream dependencies. This feature is still in preview, but don’t worry—it’s not stopping there! Exposures for Power BI and auto-refresh for downstream datasets are on the way.

dbt has also introduced visual editing in dbt cloud in beta. This is a much-needed GUI for SQL-based development and exploration. Before this, you were mostly stuck using an IDE, but now dbt is stepping up its game with a friendlier, more accessible interface.

Why it matters: This release makes dbt way more approachable for a broader audience. It’s still the same powerhouse tool we know, but it’s breaking out of its "for devs only" vibe and leaning into being a slick SaaS product. Big moves!

Check all the features here.

Microsoft Fabric

What is it: Fabric has announced a public preview of OneLake shortcut of Iceberg Tables written using Snowflake in any major data lake (AWS, GCP or Azure). Snowflake has also announced ability to write Iceberg tables directly into OneLake in a return of favor. Under the hood, OneLake virtualizes the Iceberg table so it acts as a Delta table across Fabric workloads.

Why it matters: OneLake shortcuts are a big deal—they cut down on data movement, which means lower storage costs and fewer chances for things to break. Plus, Iceberg is heating up as a format, with Snowflake claiming it outperforms Delta tables. It’s shaping up to be the ultimate showdown: Iceberg vs. Delta. Who’s gonna win this Batman vs. Superman fight? Stay tuned!

Read more here.

Data events action calendar

• Last day of Snowflake Build conference today, find your details here.

• While the in-person passes for Microsoft Ignite are sold out, you can still register for the online pass here.

• Catch the Annual Big Data & Analytics Summit in Vancouver, BC on November 19th and 20th. Details here.

• Catch Databricks’ last user meetup for this year in Vancouver, BC on November 28th. Details here.

• Attend the Breakfast & Data Monetization event at Google NYC Office on December 11th. Hurry, seats limited to 50 people! Details here.

• AWS re:invent, which is a data conference around Gen AI, Analytics & Cloud is happening in Las Vegas from December 2-6th! Details here.

Cool Jobs in Data!

• Aritzia is hiring for a Data & Analytics - Senior Engineer, Digital Platform in Vancouver, Canada

• Walmart is hiring a Senior Manager, Merchandise Analytics in Mississauga, Ontario

• Pinterest is hiring Data Scientists across US

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