Achieving faster insights with AI-powered self-served analytics
The AA unlocks data insights in Microsoft Teams with AI/BI Genie APIs
Efficiency gain in answering routine queries
Availability and faster response times
The Automobile Association (AA), the UK’s leading provider of roadside assistance serving 14 million members, transformed their data landscape with Databricks AI/BI Genie. By implementing Genie Conversation APIs, the organization integrated natural language data queries into Microsoft Teams, allowing colleagues across the business to access data insights instantly. This eliminated data silos, reduced manual workloads and freed the data team to focus on higher-value tasks, enabling faster decision-making across the organization.
Breaking down bottlenecks in analytics
The AA faced a number of challenges in their analytics processes before adopting Genie. Reporting systems were fragmented across multiple tools. As Matt Sanderson, Head of Data Products for Channels at The AA, explained, “We encountered some challenges in our reporting processes — accuracy, timeliness and governance were all areas of concern.” Teams often navigated complex dashboards or submitted tickets for simple queries, leading to inefficiencies that delayed decision-making.
One key pain point was the reliance on data specialists for routine questions. For example, trading teams frequently asked for sales performance or conversion rates — tasks that could take hours or even days to resolve due to the bottlenecks created on a rather small team. “Data specialists on my team spent excessive time responding to ad hoc queries instead of focusing on delivering deeper insights,” Matt noted.
Additionally, integrating data from external sources like Google Cloud’s BigQuery proved challenging, and creating a unified view of The AA’s data required extensive manual effort. These inefficiencies highlighted the need for a streamlined solution that could democratize data access while maintaining governance.
Recognizing these challenges, The AA sought a tool that would empower nontechnical users to self-serve analytics without relying on inflexible dashboards or coding expertise — a shift critical for improving productivity across departments.
Empowering self-served analytics with Databricks AI/BI Genie APIs and Microsoft Teams
To address these challenges, The AA implemented Databricks AI/BI Genie — a natural language–powered analytics tool integrated seamlessly into Microsoft Teams through its Conversation API. Genie enables users to query data in plain English, making insights accessible to trading, marketing and product teams instantly. “Genie has been a game changer for us,” Matt shared. “It allows us to get colleagues the data they need in seconds rather than hours or days.”
The implementation process involved training Genie on a set of “golden questions” frequently asked by trading teams — such as weekly sales summaries or promotional impacts on conversion rates. Rigorous testing ensured Genie consistently delivered accurate responses aligned with Power BI dashboards. “We validated every response against our existing BI systems,” Matt explained.
Via its Conversation APIs, Genie’s integration with Microsoft Teams further enhanced accessibility by allowing users to query data directly within their communication platform. This removed barriers to entry and increased adoption among nontechnical staff. Matt emphasized its impact: “Getting it into Microsoft Teams removed barriers — it’s familiar and accessible for everyone.”
Governance was also prioritized during implementation. By leveraging Unity Catalog’s role-based access controls, The AA ensured secure sharing of insights across departments while maintaining compliance standards. Furthermore, Lakehouse Federation enables Genie to combine data from external sources seamlessly using Unity Catalog, including Google Cloud’s BigQuery. “It was easy to get off the ground,” Matt noted. “Databricks did much of the heavy lifting for us.”
The benefits extended beyond accessibility — Genie empowered users to ask complex questions about sales performance or promotional impacts without needing SQL expertise. Trading teams could analyze conversion rates by device type or evaluate campaign effectiveness during critical sales periods like Black Friday — all within seconds.
Transformative business impact through improved productivity and faster decision-making
Since adopting Genie, The AA has seen substantial improvements in productivity and decision-making speed across digital. Routine query resolution times have dropped by up to 70% and data specialists have been freed to focus on strategic initiatives such as predictive modeling and advanced analytics. Matt highlighted this shift: “Reducing the load on my team allows us to focus on deeper value-add insights.”
Looking ahead, The AA plans to expand Genie’s use into other product lines and business areas. “We’re replicating what we’ve done on our UK breakdown data while learning from our initial rollout,” Matt said. The organization is also exploring integrations with machine learning models for sales and demand forecasting — a project expected to further enhance their decision-making capabilities.
Quantifying Genie’s impact reveals impressive gains: Productivity has increased significantly as routine tasks are automated, user satisfaction has improved due to faster access to reliable data and decision-making processes have accelerated across departments.
