For years, the "Data-Driven" dream has looked a lot like a crowded screen. We built dashboards for every department, every KPI, and every niche project. But as we reached "peak dashboard," a frustrating reality set in: we were drowning in visualizations but starving for immediate insights.
At a recent fireside chat on the Agentic Analytics Stage, I sat down with Joachim Höffner, Verivox’s Lead Data & BI Engineer, to explore a provocative question: Is traditional BI dying, or is agentic analytics the progress we’ve been waiting for?
For Verivox, the answer isn’t about choosing one over the other—it’s about a fundamental shift in the "operating model" of data.
The "Dashboard-Driven" Trap
The debate began with a blunt assessment of the status quo: Most companies are not data-driven; they are dashboard-driven. At Verivox, the team recognized this pattern early on. While dashboards are great for monitoring, they often fail at the explanation phase.
When a KPI turns red, the dashboard rarely tells you why. This usually triggers a manual cycle:
1. Management sees a dip in the dashboard.
2. A request is sent to the data team.
3. Days later, an answer arrives.
4. By then, the decision has often already been made based on intuition.
The willingness to be data-driven exists, but the information isn't available fast enough. To bridge this gap, Verivox has spent the last 18 months moving beyond static reporting toward a more conversational, agentic approach.
Agentic Analytics: A New Operating Model
“Agentic Analytics is not a tool implementation—it is a new operating model.”
Joachim Höffner
Lead Data & BI Engineer, Verivox
Verivox has been testing AI-driven chat systems that allow business users to skip the ticket queue and ask questions directly. This "search-based" approach, which Joachim first explored with ThoughtSpot years ago, has now evolved into a world where AI agents don't just find data—they analyze relationships and explain variances.
"It is about fundamentally changing how questions are asked and answered. Business users can increasingly obtain answers independently without always relying on specialists." - Joachim Höffner, Lead Data & BI Engineer, Verivox
However, that independence doesn't come automatically.
The Reality Check: Trust and Human Responsibility
Despite the excitement, Verivox’s journey has been grounded in pragmatism. AI isn't a magic wand, and hallucinations were a real technical hurdle.
The 1+1 Test: Some companies lose trust in AI when it fails simple logic tests.
Consistency is King: "Creative" answers are a liability in enterprise settings—Verivox requires deterministic results, with the AI giving the same accurate answer every time.
The Human Guardrail: At Verivox, the responsibility still lies with the human. Employees are being trained not just to use AI, but to critically evaluate its output.
This human-in-the-loop approach is also what keeps traditional BI relevant—not as a fallback, but as the foundation AI works on top of.
Will Dashboards Disappear?
Dashboards will return to their original purpose: providing a high-level view of core company health. When an anomaly appears, that’s when the agent steps in.
Instead of building a new dashboard to investigate a trend, a user will engage an AI agent to perform the deep dive, potentially saving days of manual labor.
The Best Time to Start your Agentic Analytics Journey is Now
The speed of development is exponential, especially with the next generation of talent already using AI as a primary tool for problem-solving. For Verivox, staying ahead means:
1. Defining Business Value: Not doing AI for the sake of AI, but identifying where it speeds up decision-making.
2. Focusing on Governance: Ensuring that as data becomes more accessible, it remains secure and compliant.
3. Experimentation: Accepting that while we don't know exactly where the journey ends, the cost of standing still is too high.
The verdict? Traditional BI isn't investing in the past: it’s the baseline. But if you want to move at the speed of the modern market, you need to start building your agentic future today.
Check out how ThoughtSpot is supporting Verivox’s agentic journey and can do the same for your team – click here for a demo.
