Reports
Note
Auto Insights Reports is new and improving, and is currently in Public Preview.
We encourage you to use Auto Insights Reports to create reports, share and send to your peers and colleagues, and to provide any feedback via the Auto Insights Discussion Forum on Alteryx Community.
Auto Insights Reports is an end-to-end, flexible, AI-infused solution for reporting. Reports combines the flexibility of an advanced editor with the power of automated analysis and the intelligence of AI.
The Power of Automated Insights: Surface what’s happened in your business, why it’s happening, and what relevant stories exist within your data – refreshed automatically with your data.
The Flexibility of an Advanced Editor: Author analytics reports with an advanced editor that enables reporting flexibility and precision for your audience.
The Intelligence of AI: Use AI Assistance to generate insightful commentaries and executive summaries, giving you up-to-date information without manual intervention.
How do Reports work?
To trigger an interaction on the Report users have two options:
Option 1: select the + or press “/”.
This will trigger the dropdown menu
You can either scroll and select items in the dropdown menu or just start typing and the matched results will be displayed.
You can also select See all items which will trigger the right hand side menu where you can select whichever action you want to perform.
Option 2: select the Items menu button on the top right corner.
This will trigger the right hand side menu
You can select and configure items which then are added to the report.
The main categories of actions that can be triggered from the dropdown or right hand side menu are as follows:
Text and Layout: allows you to select formatting options for text, inserting images and other items that help structure a document.
Insights and Charts: allows you to select from a variety of display options (analytics blocks) which can get configured once the right hand side menu opens (similar to the query bar from Missions).
AI Assist: allows you to generate an executive summary for the page.
Callouts: allows you to visually distinguish a text section.
Styles of Analytics Blocks:
Insight card: Similar to the default setting on the Mission Summary the Insight Card includes the key data, dates, a chart, and the top “What caused this" drivers.
Chart: Includes the key data, dates, and a visual.
KPI Tile: A new format for a single metric which includes the key data, dates, and an outline. Up to 3 scorecards can be placed next to each other.
Figure: A new format for a single metric that just shows the key data. The Figure allows you to add dynamic data as part of a line of text or inside a manual table.
How to configure Analytics Blocks:
All Analytics Blocks can be configured using the right hand side menu. The following can be configured:
Customise the query name.
Change the analytics block type (Insight Card, Chart, KPI Tile or Figure)
If your analytics block includes a chart you can change the chart type.
Change the analytics type (Change analysis or Total analysis).
Configure the query for the Analytics Blocks:
Change dataset and measure.
Apply filters and/or breakdowns.
Select date ranges or all of time.
Compare two measures against each other to find out how much they correlate.
Figures and Scorecards don’t allow a Breakdown to be configured as this cannot be effectively visualized.
Styles of Tables:
Tables allow you to chose between entering data manually or using a dataset to easily populate a table. While Analytics Blocks can be switched between the different styles (eg. from a Chart to a KPI Tile, etc), a Table cannot be converted to other types of Analytics Blocks.
Data Table:
A new form of table that allows you to select a dataset and automatically populate a table from it.
You can easily customise the table by selecting columns to display, and applying filtering, sorting, and other customizations.
To use datasets in data tables the you have to either be the owner/editor of the dataset or the owner/editor of the dataset has enabled the underlying dataset access via configure dataset from the dataset tab.
Manual Table:
Allows you to create a manual table that can house static content, figures, or a combination of both.
How to configure Tables:
Data Tables can be configured in the right hand side menu. In the right hand side menu the following can be configured:
Select the Dataset.
Select which columns to show or hide.
Apply filters across columns in your dataset.
Apply sorting of to columns of your dataset.
Adjust display configurations, to configure how many rows are shown, and your preference of column styles.
Manual Tables can be configured directly in the report, not within the right hand side menu.
With the cursor in a specific cell, or after selecting multiple cells, use the chevron shown on hover to access to table menu which provides access to the following configuration options:
Change cell color.
Rows menu: Add rows above/below, remove rows, and remove header row highlighting (when selected in a header row).
Columns menu: Add columns left/right, and remove columns.
Add row stripes.
Delete table.
Figures can be added into a manual table using the "/" menu.
AI Capabilities for Reports
There are 5 types of AI capabilities for Reports:
Executive Summary
Generates a executive summary for the entire Report (this content is static and does not automatically update if the data on the Report updates).
Gets triggered through the dropdown or right hand side menu.
Summarise
Generates a summary of a section of text (this content is static and does not automatically update if the data on the Report updates).
Gets triggered by highlighting a section and selecting the magic wand icon.
Rephrase
Uses AI to rephrase a section based on the user's prompts, ie. rephrase this to be friendly and concise (this content is static and does not automatically update if the data on the Report updates).
Gets triggered by highlighting a section and selecting the magic wand icon.
Translate
Uses AI to translate a section into the language you selected (this content is static and does not automatically update if the data on the Report updates).
Gets triggered by highlighting a section and selecting the magic wand icon.
Generate a Report
Generate a Report with synthetic data by entering a prompt
You enter a prompt and Auto Insights will generate use cases based on the scenario. You can then select a use case from which Auto Insights will generate a Report and a synthetic dataset (this content is static and does not automatically update if the data on the Report updates).
This gets triggered by clicking on the Generate Report button and then selecting Enter a prompt.
Generate a Report with your own data
Select a dataset and Auto Insights will generate use cases based on what type of data is available in the selected dataset. You can then select a use case and Auto Insights will generate a Report based on the use case and the selected dataset.
The data/insight blocks will update when the data refreshes, however static content will not update automatically.
This gets triggered by clicking on the Generate Report button and selecting Select a dataset.
How to enable the AI capabilities for Reports
By default all new workspaces will have all AI capabilities enabled (but the Workspace Admin can disable them in Admin Portal).
By default all companies that previously have had Magic Documents and Playbooks with your own data enabled will have all of the AI Assistant capabilities enabled for Reports.
To enable the AI capabilities the Workspace Admin needs to enable them in Admin Portal under the Feature Access Tab.
To get access to the full suite of AI capabilities the following feature access toggles need to be enabled by the Workspace Admin:
Reports: AI Assistant
Playbooks with synthetic data (which will enable this feature for Missions and Reports)
Playbooks with your own data (which will enable this feature for Missions and Reports).
To enable which datasets can be used for Playbooks with your own data, the dataset owner will need to go to Datasets → select the three dots for the dataset → Configure dataset → Advanced settings → Playbooks with your own data → set it to Enabled. For more information, see Playbooks With Your Own Data.
Security Around the AI Capabilities for Reports
All AI capabilities for Reports are powered by Open AI via Azure OpenAI services:
None of the information leaves the Alteryx AzureAI tenant.
All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
No information is used to train any models.
None of the information is mixed up with any of the general public request to OpenAI.
For additional information on our AI capabilities please see Data Security When Using Magic Documents or Playbooks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the width of the Report get changed?
Not at this stage. The current width is optimised for legibility of paragraphs when using body text.
Who can send a Report via Email?
Only editors can send the Report to other users with access to Auto Insights.
Sending a Report will send an email with the Report attached as a PDF.
Alteryx will show a warning if the email and the PDF attachment are over 20MB, and will show an error message when the email and the PDF attachment are over 25MB as email clients enforce maximum attachment sizes.
Who can download a Report as a PDF?
Only editors can download the PDF.
The PDF will show everything exactly as the editor can see it no matter the underlying dataset access.
Not everything is displayed in the PDF. For example a table with 30 columns will be cut off in the PDF.
Who can edit a Report?
Only the editor of the Report can edit it.
They need to select the Edit Report button in the top left corner.
To become an owner of a Report, users can:
Create a new Report from scratch using the Create Report button on the Report tab.
Generate a Report (this is an AI feature and needs to be enabled in Admin Portal by the Workspace Admin).
Duplicate a Report that was shared with them. The person duplicating the Report becomes the owner of the duplicated Report.