Sigma Computing is a true innovator in the data industry. Their approach to data and data users has always been to understand the problem and desired outcome and then find the most optimal solution regardless of what other platforms may or may not be doing. The Spring 2024 Product Launch is another example of those iterations and innovative ideas.
In this blog, we will summarize the recent product announcements made by Sigma and fill you in on what we’re excited about. While some of the features mentioned in the announcement were already available, others are yet to be fully released.
This list will give you an overview of Sigma’s past, present, and future roadmap.
The items highlighted fit into four general buckets: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Applications, Embedding Advancements, and Platform Enhancements.
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Sigma & AI
There’s no escaping AI in today’s data landscape (and for good reason). AI is opening up new avenues to interact and investigate our data. Like many other platforms, Sigma has integrated OpenAI into Sigma Copilot in several ways to provide a powerful suite of tools. Here are some of the highlights:
Sigma Copilot: A conversation-like feature that allows you to ask questions about your data. Sigma then builds a workbook or element to provide an answer. What I like about this feature is that you can use it anytime during your analysis process. You can start with Copilot, use it in the middle to speed up build time, or at the end to find new insights.
AI Formula Bar: Ask AI to help you create formulas. Sometimes, calculations can be complex with nested logic. Asking AI to help will streamline the building process by ensuring the logic and syntax are correct.
AI Forecasting: Since Sigma is built for the cloud, it’s easy to capitalize on cloud innovations such as Snowflake’s Cortex. Using Cortex, Sigma can easily create customizable forecasts.
One of the most exciting aspects of Sigma’s AI is that it will let you bring any AI/LLM you’d like. This is especially significant since Sigma never saves copies of your data; you always control who and how your data can be used.
Sigma Data Applications
By combining Sigma’s Input Tables and newly released workbook actions, organizations can now create applications and forms. Input Tables enable anyone to create or enhance data in a cloud warehouse. Workbook actions enable a better design and user experiences to populate data in Input Tables.
Thanks to applications and forms, organizations and teams can now efficiently manage and interact with various types of data within a single platform. This will streamline data workflows and analysis by eliminating barriers between data creation, manipulation, updating, and analysis. As a result, the number of systems required will be reduced, leading to lower costs and smoother data-handling processes.
Sigma Embedding Advancements
Embedding with Sigma has always been streamlined and easy, but now it’s even more powerful and interactive. In this announcement, Sigma demoed an expanded Explore Mode for embedding.
Explore Mode creates a temporary view for users to change, investigate, and save new meaningful insights. By enabling Explore Mode, embedded customers and end users can experience Sigma’s true exploratory power. Additionally, Sigma Embedding providers can now offer a more advanced license type to their customers, increasing their revenue.
Also announced was expanding the collaboration and sharing options we know and love in workbooks to embedded users. With these new tools, users can now easily interact and collaborate within the same ecosystem without filing tickets in a separate system or sending countless emails. This not only accelerates the collaboration process but also makes it more efficient and effective.
Sigma Platform Enhancements
The last few items covered were a mixture of design and ease-of-use features. One of the most exciting features is containers. Containers allow for multiple elements to be treated or grouped together.
For example, all KPIs or a KPI and a bar chart put into a single container improves the overall design by 1) reducing space between elements, making it more clear these elements are related to each other 2) adding an additional layer for design, like coloring the background of all the elements in the container to highlight an analysis.
In addition to containers, Table Styles are another recent addition that will improve the overall design and impact of table elements. These table styles are meant to mimic styles from Excel or Google Sheets, but in true Sigma fashion, make them even better and more flexible. The style options are straightforward and can be set at the organization, theme, workbook, or individual element level.
My personal favorite is the checkbox to show banding. This simple feature dramatically improves readability in large tables and, in other platforms, is difficult to build or doesn’t automatically update with new data.
In addition to these announcements, Sigma also previewed other features such as a Python integration, a refreshed SQL query runner, a built-in Waterfall chart element, and Microsecond reporting.
Closing
Overall, these announcements provide an exciting glimpse into Sigma’s product roadmap. Sigma has previously been mislabeled as an ad-hoc only or fancy-Excel replacement, but it is clear to see that Sigma is more than just Excel for the cloud. Sigma is definitely a contender in the data exploration and analysis industry.
With AI and Data Applications, Sigma is pushing the boundaries of what a data platform can be. You won’t want to get left behind! Contact us today to learn more about how Sigma can enable your organization!
FAQs
I love these features! Can I start using them now?
Some of the features announced are generally available, while others were glimpses into Sigma’s development roadmap. Reach out to your Sigma account manager or the award winning live help chat to ask about enabling specific features on your Sigma environment.
Sigma’s Copilot looks amazing, but I’m not sure if our data is ready for AI.
Sigma’s AI integrations always put you in control of your environment and your data. Administrators can choose what data is connected to OpenAI or AzureOpenAI. If you’d like to learn more about optimizing your data for AI, attend one of our complementary AI workshops!
