Zoho Analytics adds AI helpers that build reports for you

Zoho has rebuilt Zoho Analytics around AI agents. Instead of building reports and dashboards yourself, you describe what you want in plain English and the software does much of the work. Zoho calls this agentic analytics, meaning AI that carries out tasks for you rather than only answering questions.

What changed

Zoho Analytics used to be a self-service business intelligence tool, which is software that turns company data into reports and charts. Its assistant, Ask Zia, is now a "super agent" that hands work to six helpers. They share the same context, so you can start with a question and move on to building something without starting over.

• Data Analysis: explains what happened, why, and what to do next.
• Visualization: builds a chart or dashboard from your description.
• Data Preparation: cleans and combines data, and builds pipelines you can review and edit.
• Formula Agent: writes the formula for a metric such as gross margin.
• DSML Coding: trains and runs machine learning models in Python.
• SQL Agent: writes, explains and fixes database queries.

Teaching the AI your terms

An AI that does not know what "active customer" means at your company will guess. Zoho Analytics offers three ways to supply that context. An ontology maps your customers, orders and products and how they connect. A semantic layer works like a glossary, where you define terms and synonyms once. Scoping limits an agent to specific data, such as one regional team's numbers.

You can also build custom agents with your own knowledge base, connected tools and guardrails, and you decide who can use each one. Ask Zia can run on Zoho's own model, supported models from providers such as OpenAI, or your own key.

More data sources

Zoho added more than 30 connectors to the 500+ it already supports. New Zoho connections include Zoho ERP, Zoho Spend, Zoho FSM, Zoho Shifts and Zoho Voice. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 connector now covers more modules. Zoho Projects customers on the Ultimate plan get real-time sync with the Zoho Analytics Enterprise plan.

What to know before trying

Zoho offers a free 15-day trial with no credit card. The material does not say what the paid plans cost, so check that before committing. The release also adds scenario analysis, which tests "what if" questions such as higher prices with lower ad spend, and a correlation matrix that shows which factors move together.

For a business owner, the appeal is faster answers without hiring an analyst. The catch is that the answers are only as good as the definitions behind them. Set up your key terms first, then spot-check what the agents produce against numbers you already trust.