Looker: Unleashing the Power of Data Analytics
Looker is a remarkable AI-powered business intelligence platform that has been making waves in the data analytics realm. It offers a plethora of features and capabilities that enable businesses to make the most of their data.
Overview
Looker provides a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing governed data, delivering valuable business insights, and building AI-powered applications. Leveraging Google's expertise in AI-led innovation, it combines foundational AI, cloud-first infrastructure, industry-leading APIs, and a flexible semantic layer to offer an intelligent BI solution.
It allows users to create custom data experiences and data apps with its powerful embedded capabilities. This goes beyond just placing dashboards in apps; it transforms data into deeply integrated, value-driving experiences. The robust API coverage further enhances the possibilities, enabling users to do almost anything from the UI via API.
Core Features
One of the standout features is its trusted modeling layer. This provides a single place to curate and govern the metrics crucial to a business. Users can expect consistent results regardless of where the data is consumed. Additionally, Looker extensions integrate directly with Vertex AI, opening up avenues for powerful custom AI workflows and advanced analytics within the Looker instance.
Looker also offers two ways to empower users with self-service capabilities - Looker and Looker Studio. Looker provides enterprise dashboards with real-time data, repeatable analysis, and in-depth understanding. On the other hand, Looker Studio offers interactive, collaborative, and ad-hoc reports and dashboards, with access to numerous data sources and a flexible drag-and-drop canvas.
The Gemini in Looker is an AI assistant that accelerates analytical workflows such as visualization creation, formula creation, and more. It is underpinned by both a robust semantic and Gemini foundational models, ensuring high-quality outputs and rapid innovation in the UX.
Basic Usage
Looker has various common uses. For instance, it helps in reducing cross-cloud spending by providing robust out-of-the-box reporting for day-to-day and long-term optimization needs. Marketers can utilize it to analyze and activate their first-party data with its user-friendly interface and packaged activation paths.
Companies looking to create custom data and AI applications can benefit from its API-first platform, semantic layer, and gen AI integration. It also enables data monetization by allowing the creation of tailored data products and seamless embedding of analytics.
In terms of collaboration, the Looker Block for Workspace offers modeled schemas for various Google Workspace tools and provides dashboards for security audit and adoption. Overall, Looker is a dynamic data analytics powerhouse that, when combined with BigQuery, simplifies complex data relationships and drives business growth through actionable insights.
