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by Joe Dysart
Organizations looking to auto-generate written reports from their databases now have a raft of tools available, thanks to the emergence of artificial intelligence generated writing software.
Essentially, these AI-generated writing solutions can drill-down into organization databases and auto-produce easy-to-understand, written reports based on that data.
Such reports regularly unearth insights about trends and performance that might otherwise go under-reported – or even unnoticed.
Generally, many of the AI tools behind these solutions – also known as Natural Language Generation, or NLG — are variations of the same software that is helping major news organizations auto-generate stories from their databases.
Automated Insights for example – an AI toolmaker that made its name helping the Associated Press auto-generate simple sports stories from AP’s sports databases – now offers a solution that enables organizations and companies to auto-transform their data into text narratives.
In a phrase: Any data report your organization currently produces – or may be looking to produce in coming years – can now be rendered with AI-generated writing.
More recently, a number of the toolmakers behind AI-generated reports have decided to offer easy integration of their tools with popular business intelligence software.
So if you currently use Microsoft Power BI to graphically visualize info in your database, for example, you can now integrate many of these AI-writing tools into Power BI.
That will enable you to generate text analysis of your data right alongside the visualizations of your data.
Similar AI-generated writing integrations are available with Microsoft Excel, Microstrategy, Qlik, Spotfire, SAP and Tableau.
“NLG-driven, multi-dimensional narratives are the breakthrough that (data-generated) visuals were years ago,” says Sharon Daniels, CEO, Arria, an AI-generated writing toolmaker.
“The Big Data problem was partially addressed with the evolution of business intelligence dashboards,” (like Microsoft BI) she says. “But while visuals paint a picture, they’re not the complete picture.
“With the addition of NLG, business intelligence dashboards are transformed,” Daniels says. “The ability to access key information in near real-time — communicated as if written by the company’s top analyst, without bias, at an NLG writing-speed — is truly astonishing.
“It’s what users are demanding: Complete information, faster conclusions and better decision-making.”
Adds Anna Schnena, a senior product manager at Narrative Science, another AI-generated writing toolmaker: “Instead of forcing people to learn how to analyze spreadsheets or explore dashboards, data storytelling uses simple, easy-to-understand language and one-click collaboration features to ensure that everyone in your company actually understands data, all the time.
“With ‘data storytelling,’ your team can read a personalized story that tells them what they need to know about their business — tailored specifically to their needs, automatically.
“Data storytelling technology is intelligent. It naturally articulates the most important and interesting information to each employee, every day. And it allows them to share that information with each other.”
Plus, having an automated report writer in-house also offers organizations the opportunity to generate more reports, more often.
For example: Why be satisfied with a performance report on your company’s sales each month, when you can auto-produce that performance report each week – or even each day?
In fact, some seasoned users of these combination systems program reports to auto-refresh every time they open their business intelligence software on their PC.
Of course, integrating an AI-generated writing tool with your favorite business intelligence software – or simply integrating an AI-writing tool with your organization database – does take some ramp-up time.
“People must invest a significant amount of time and resources to set-up and perfect NLG Software on the front end,” says Brian Everett, senior partner, MindShare Strategies, a marketing firm.
Plus, “After reports and articles are generated, people still need to review and tweak the text to ensure it makes sense and is error-free.”
One of the best ways to shop for AI-generated writing software that integrates with business intelligence software is to check-out market leaders in the space.
Once you’re aware of the best the industry has to offer, you can scout around for other solutions that go for less, have fewer bells-and-whistles – but may be just fine for the kind of reports you want.
Currently, the top three players in AI-generated writing are Automated Insights, Narrative Science and Arria, according to a report released last year by Forrester, a highly respected market research firm.
These three AI-generated writing toolmakers offer solutions that demonstrate the greatest ability to auto-generate richly worded text from data, according to Forrester.
The top three players also offer the most customization, in terms of the kinds of reports that can be generated, as well as the number of writing styles that can be used to generate the reports.
And the three offer solutions in more languages than other competitors, according to Forrester.
The second tier – strong performers – are two business intelligence software makers that added AI-generated writing to their existing offerings: SAP and Salesforce, according to Forrester.
On the third tier are ‘contenders’ AX Semantics, Yseop, IBM and Marlabs.
(A free copy of the Forrester report analyzing the toolmakers behind AI-generated writing – normally $1,295 – is available at a link on Yseop’s Web site.)
Gartner Group, another highly respected market research firm, came up with a similar list of key players in their June 2019 report on AI-generated writing: Arria NLG, Automated Insights, AX Semantics and Yseop.
No matter what solution you find most appealing, the features to look for in any AI-generated writing system should include:
*Custom Analysis: Currently, scores of AI-generated writing toolmakers have the ability to transform data into simple text. But fewer offer the added ability to manipulate that capability to unearth the specific insights you need.
The best tools offer the greatest flexibility for unearthing those insights – as well as the ability to blend those insights with a business intelligence program you already use.
*Granular Focus: The best AI-generated writing solutions also enable you to easily produce reports that can be tailored to unearth highly specific insights – even insights that may be of use to only one individual in your organization.
*Real-Time Updating: Many AI-generated writing solutions offer users the option to ‘set-it-and-forget-it.’ Essentially, this enables users to design a pre-defined report, which is continuously updated with real-time data.
Continuous updating is an extremely handy feature, for example, if you’re monitoring critical data that’s streaming into your organization non-stop.
*Custom Language Style: Currently, basic AI-generated text has a reputation for being a bit plain-and-dry. Less commonly known is that the best of these tools offer you the ability to stylize the language.
So if you want to go for more than just plain-and-dry, you can bring in a highly creative copywriter to tweak the language style your system auto-generates.
*Ability to Port to Text-Chat Bots and Voice-Chat Bots: While not every organization is currently using chatbots to communicate with customers – or to foster communication among employees — you may want that option down the line.
As chatbot technology matures, for example, a chatbot backed by an AI-generated writing system will most likely be able to carry-on a conversation with a customer with ease in a very natural, intelligent and innovative manner.
Ditto for chatbots that your employees may want to start using to query your database for easy answers to insights buried there.
Such AI-powered chatbots would be a welcome change from conventional chatbots. Those often come off as robot-like and are often flummoxed for responses to even the seemingly easiest questions.
Overall, given the great value AI-generated writing offers organizations, look for a number of new AI-generated writing providers to emerge during the next few years, who will be offering ever-more powerful and ever-more versatile systems.
Such solutions will come in the form of stand-alone tools like those from Automated Insights and Arria. Others will emerge as add-on tools to comprehensive business software suites like SAP and Salesforce.
Bottom line: Even if you’re not in the market for AI-generated writing right now, you’ll want to track this tech closely in coming years. It’s poised to dramatically alter the way organizations and companies work with data.
Says Pooja Parthasarathy, senior product manager, Narrative Science: Data reports auto-created with AI-generated writing make insight and decision-making at a company much easier because “everyone knows the same story.
“There’s no interpretation and there’s no element of guesswork or (alternative) perspective that goes into it. Everyone is looking at — and understanding — the same story. Together.”
–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.