Configure AI features for your organization

Sigma offers several AI powered features1 to accelerate user insights:

  • Ask Sigma is a natural language query (NLQ) interface that allows you to ask questions about your data and interact with AI-generated responses. See Ask natural language queries with Ask Sigma.
  • The formula assistant uses AI to write new formulas, correct formula errors, and explain existing formulas. See Use AI with formulas.
  • Explain this chart uses AI to instantly generate a description of any chart. See Explain charts with AI.

1 Sigma Computing is continuously working to improve and expand on existing functionality. This document will be updated as new AI features become available.

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The use of AI features is subject to the following disclaimer.

As an admin, you can configure an AI provider, configure permissions for AI feature usage, and select the data sources that are available to Ask Sigma:

System and user requirements

Configure an AI provider

Sigma currently supports two AI provider options: OpenAI or Azure OpenAI Foundry. See Manage OpenAI integration.

Configure permissions for AI features

To control which Sigma users have access to AI features, enable or disable the relevant permissions for specific account types.

AI featureAccount type permission that enables use
Ask SigmaUse Ask Sigma
Formula assistantFull explore
Explain this chartBasic explore

For more details, including details on which license tiers have access to these permissions, see License and account type overview.

Select data sources to make available to Ask Sigma (Beta)

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This documentation describes a public beta feature and is under construction. This documentation should not be considered part of our published documentation until this notice, and the corresponding Beta flag on the feature in the Sigma service, are removed. As with any beta feature, the feature discussed below is subject to quick, iterative changes. The latest experience in the Sigma service might differ from the contents of this document.

Beta features are subject to the Beta features disclaimer.

Choose the data sources to make available to Ask Sigma. Select popular data sources to improve the relevance of results for your users.

  1. Go to Administration > AI Settings:

    1. In the Sigma header, click your user avatar to open the user menu.
    2. Select Administration to open the Administration portal.
    3. In the side panel, select AI Settings.
  2. In the Ask Sigma data sources section, enter terms in the search bar to find the tables, data models, and datasets that you want to make available for use in responses to user questions in Ask Sigma.

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    Ask Sigma respects user data permissions to data sources. Each user is able to see and query only the data sources they have access to.

  3. Select the checkboxes next to the sources you want to make available to Ask Sigma.

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    If you previously selected sources to make available, keep them checked unless you want to remove them from the list of sources available to Ask Sigma.

  4. To see a list of all data sources that are either already available or that you have selected to make available, clear any text from the search bar. The Pending column indicates the action to be taken when you proceed.

    Image showing the Ask Sigma data source selection panel with one source selected to be added and another to remove.
  5. After selecting all relevant data sources, click Sync.

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If you change any metadata in your data platform after your initial sync, return to this screen and manually re-sync your data sources to ensure Ask Sigma has access to those changes.

How Ask Sigma selects data sources when answering user questions

Ask Sigma determines which data source to use to answer a user's question based on these factors, in this order:

  • The user's permission to the data source. Ask Sigma will respect the permissions of the user asking the question and will not expose data they are not authorized to use.
  • The relevancy of the data to the question. Ask Sigma uses any metadata that exists to describe data sources and data columns, and can infer relevancy from column names if no other metadata has been defined.
  • The known validity of the data. If, for example, a data model has an "endorsed" badge, Ask Sigma is more likely to suggest it. Similarly, if someone in your organization has created and shared a metric definition, data model, or dataset, Ask Sigma will leverage those in relevant answers rather than using a raw table.
  • The frequency of usage of the data source. Ask Sigma is more likely to reference frequently used data sources in its answers.

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You do not need to add any metadata to your data sources in order for Ask Sigma to determine which ones to use. Ask Sigma will use any existing available metadata, such as certification badges, source descriptions, and column descriptions, to determine relevancy to a user's question, but can also determine relevancy using column names alone. If no metadata is defined, Ask Sigma automatically generates AI summaries for each data source that it uses. If you want to add badges and other metadata, see Annotate tables with metadata.