ThoughtSpot boosts agentic push with Analyst Studio update
A data prep agent and caching capabilities aimed at helping users control spending help the vendor stand out from its peers as it evolves toward becoming an agentic data platform.
With its latest Analyst Studio update, ThoughtSpot continues its progress toward becoming an agentic platform.
First released in January 2025, Analyst Studio is ThoughtSpot's data preparation suite. Initial features included connectors that enable analysts and engineers to combine data from disparate sources, an AI-assisted SQL-based development environment, and capabilities aimed at helping customers control data management costs.
Among other tools, the update, released on Wednesday, adds SpotCache, a caching capability that builds on Analyst Studio's pre-existing cost management capabilities, a data preparation agent that enables users to perform tasks using natural language and a native spreadsheet interface for scaling data preparation workloads.
Coming just over two months after ThoughtSpot unveiled plans automate its analytics capabilities with agents, the new version of Analyst Studio represents ThoughtSpot's progression beyond agentic analytics toward agentic data management as well, according to Donald Farmer, founder and principal of TreeHive Strategy.
"I don't think this release is a big deal in itself, but it steadily moves ThoughtSpot forward on the path to an agentic data platform," he said. "With each release, the workflow is less dashboard-centric."
Michael Ni, an analyst at Constellation Research, similarly noted that the Analyst Studio is significant because it shows ThoughtSpot moving beyond its roots as an analytics specialist toward becoming a more broad-based data and analytics provider.
"Thoughtspot addresses a key pain by reducing prep friction, improving cost predictability and tightening governance," he said. "At the same time, it's strategic for ThoughtSpot. The expansion upstream into data prep and cost control -- areas traditionally owned by hyperscalers and transformation tools -- moves [ThoughtSpot] toward becoming an AI workload optimizer. That's where enterprise dollars are moving."
Based in Mountain View, Calif., ThoughtSpot provided an AI-powered analytics platform from its inception in 2012. Now, just as peers such as Tableau and Qlik did before, ThoughtSpot is expanding beyond its roots to provide a wider array of data, analytics and AI development capabilities.
Predictable data prep
While some enterprises are investing heavily in building AI tools that make employees better informed and operations more efficient, the expense required to develop and maintain agents, chatbots and other AI applications has proven prohibitive for many others.
The expansion upstream into data prep and cost control -- areas traditionally owned by hyperscalers and transformation tools -- moves [ThoughtSpot] toward becoming an AI workload optimizer. That's where enterprise dollars are moving.
Michael NiAnalyst, Constellation Research
AWS recently made cost control one of the focal points of the data management capabilities it introduced during its annual re:Invent conference. In addition, numerous database vendors have made performance a priority so that customers can run more efficient workloads.
With SpotCache now available in Analyst Studio, ThoughtSpot is similarly taking aim at helping customers reduce spending on part of the development process.
Caching is the process of storing data in a temporary storage area -- a cache -- to enable fast access that improves the performance of applications and other systems. Using SpotCache, developers and analysts can create representations of data that can be queried an unlimited number of times in ThoughtSpot, which lowers costs by reducing the frequency data must be accessed in cloud data warehouses.
Given that SpotCache addresses one of the problems enterprises encounter when trying to develop cutting-edge AI tools, it is perhaps the most valuable new feature in Analyst Studio, according to Ni.
"SpotCache is the sleeper hit in their announcement," he said. "While agentic data prep is powerful, cost certainty is what unlocks enterprise scale. If leaders know they can run unlimited AI-driven queries without blowing up their warehouse bill, adoption accelerates. That's what makes this the most strategically significant feature."
Farmer likewise highlighted SpotCache, noting that cloud cost control -- or lack thereof -- has been an ongoing problem.
"I like that they are tackling the problem of scaling with predictable cost management," he said. "That has been a barrier to broader adoption for some time. So, SpotCache stands out as arguably the most valuable new feature here."
Beyond SpotCache, ThoughtSpot's Analyst Studio update includes the following features:
A governed spreadsheet interface so that users familiar with Excel worksheets can perform data preparation tasks such as advanced manipulations in a familiar environment without having to leave Analyst Studio.
A data prep agent that enables analysts to profile datasets, generate queries and troubleshoot schemas using natural language.
Unified Data Mashup, a feature that enables data teams to deliver a unified, trusted view of their organization's business by blending data across cloud data warehouses, business applications and files such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets within Analyst Studio's SQL-based development environment.
Flexibility to choose live connections for real-time needs or cached snapshots through SpotCache.
Like Farmer and Ni, Anjali Kumari, ThoughtSpot's vice president of product management, named SpotCache the most valuable of Analyst Studio's new features. Meanwhile, he noted that the impetus for designing the new capabilities came from observing how agentic AI and generative AI have intensified the need for data.
"Getting data ready for AI has become the most important step in how organizations use, benefit and see valuable return on investment," Kumari said. "We understand the pressures that are placed on data analysts, and these tools are designed to streamline their role by addressing their top concerns -- speed, efficiency and cost."
While ThoughtSpot's expansion beyond business intelligence into data preparation with Analyst Studio is beneficial for the vendor's users, pairing analytics and data management is not unique. Not only do hyperscale cloud providers such as AWS, Google and Microsoft offer an array of data management, application development and analytics tools, but so do Domo, Qlik, Sisense, Tableau and other one-time analytics specialists.
However, the launch of a data prep agent is unique, according to Farmer.
"The biggest differentiator from other prep tools, such as Tableau or [Microsoft's] Power Query, is that ThoughtSpot offers a natural language data prep agent whereas AI in other tools is mostly limited to 'smart suggestions' or separate AI copilots," he said.
In addition, by integrating data preparation, data modeling and analytics in a single workflow designed for consumption via AI applications, ThoughtSpot is doing something different than its closest competition, according to Ni.
"Data prep is consolidating into platforms, and every business intelligence vendor has some version of it. What's interesting here is that ThoughtSpot is making data prep part of an agentic operating model," he said. "Instead of separate tooling for prep, modeling and analysis, they're collapsing it into one workflow designed for AI readiness."
Looking ahead
With the Analyst Studio update generally available, ThoughtSpot is focused on turning its platform into an enabler of autonomous action, according to Kumari.
Spotter is ThoughtSpot's agent-powered interface, and the vendor provides Spotter agents for specific tasks such as building dashboards and embedding intelligence. Together, with Spotter as the central orchestrator, ThoughtSpot aims to automate analysis and data preparation to deliver insights within user workflows.
"To power this, we are investing heavily in data readiness and expanding our semantic and modeling capabilities, ensuring these agents operate on a robust, context-aware foundation," Kumari said.
As ThoughtSpot expands beyond its roots, Farmer advised the vendor to add multi-agent coordination capabilities. ThoughtSpot's Model Context Protocol server enables agents to securely interact with data sources. Soon, as more enterprises deploy agents, the agents will need similar secure connections to each other to become fully autonomous.
"Multi-agent coordination [is] moving from a single prep agent to a 'hive' where a prep agent automatically communicates with a security agent to apply row-level permissions during the transformation process," Farmer said.
In addition, ThoughtSpot could add write-back capabilities and add to its burgeoning support for unstructured data by integrating unstructured data processing directly into Analyst Studio.
"Descriptive BI is yesterday, diagnostic AI is today, and predictive and prescriptive intelligence that tell me what could happen and where I should focus is tomorrow," he said "ThoughtSpot is strong at explaining the past and present. … Their next leap is forecasting impact and prioritizing what matters next."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than three decades of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
