Looker at Next '25: The Future of Data-Driven Decisions!
Hey data innovators! With Google Next '25 in the rear view mirror, we wanted to take a closer look at all the developments showcased in our sessions. Google Cloud aims to empower everyone in your organization to harness the power of data, and Looker is at the heart of this transformation. Let’s explore our sessions in more detail and uncover the key insights.
1. Looker Spotlight: What’s new in Looker: AI for BI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPgHQMe8tk
Link to PDF of Presentation
Our flagship session, featuring Peter Bailis, Sean Zinsmeister, and Prashaant Huria of Unilever, illustrates how organizations are leveraging Looker to achieve tangible business outcomes. You’ll hear the latest from our product vision and roadmap, and see how Unilever turns to Looker to drive their global business. From this session, you will discover how Looker’s AI-powered features, including Gemini in Looker and the new Looker reports, are connecting data models across the enterprise BI ecosystem and delivering the best of both self-service and governed BI.
Key product highlights:
- Introduction of Looker reports
- Gemini in Looker
- Continuous Integration in Looker for developers
This session showcased the diverse ways Looker is being used to solve real-world business challenges and drive measurable results. We encourage you to watch the session to hear directly how customers are transforming their operations with Looker.
2. Unlock the Power of Looker: Mastering Performance and Modeling for Scalability
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fh2TBVTjJw
Link to PDF of Presentation
For those of us who live and breathe data modeling and platform optimization, “Unlock the power of Looker: Performance secrets and modeling mastery” was a gold mine of practical advice. The session emphasized that a well-architected Looker environment is crucial for scalability and empowering users with fast, reliable insights.
Key takeaways:
- Platform Scalability Strategies: Learn how to design your Looker instance to handle growing data volumes and user bases, including architectural best practices and leveraging Google Cloud’s global infrastructure.
- Administrator Best Practices: Discover essential tips and tricks for Looker administrators to ensure optimal performance, manage user access effectively, and maintain a healthy Looker environment.
- Developer Productivity Hacks: Learn techniques and features that empower Looker developers to build efficient and maintainable data models and visualizations, ultimately accelerating the delivery of insights.
- Hubspot’s Journey: Hearing directly from Hubspot provided invaluable real-world context, showcasing how a high-growth company leverages Looker’s performance capabilities to support its evolving analytics needs. Their insights into overcoming performance challenges and scaling their Looker deployment were particularly insightful.
This session is a must-watch for anyone responsible for the performance and architecture of their Looker platform. The practical advice and real-world examples will equip you with the knowledge to optimize your Looker environment for maximum impact.
3. A New Era of Self-Service and Beautiful Visualizations: Empowering Everyone with Studio in Looker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_9rAjEMiOY
Link to PDF of Presentation
The introduction of Studio in Looker marks a significant step towards democratizing data access within organizations. Studio in Looker, featuring Looker reports, is designed to empower a wider range of users to create their own reports and explore data without needing deep technical expertise.
Key highlights of Studio in Looker include:
- An Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Interface: The user-friendly interface makes report creation accessible to everyone and lowers the barrier to entry for data exploration.
- Governed Yet Flexible Data Connections: Looker reports seamlessly blend the control of governed data models with the flexibility of ad-hoc data connections, ensuring data integrity while allowing for agile analysis.
- Rich Visualizations and Interactive Features: This session’s demo showcased the creation of visually appealing and interactive reports, including features like data chips for quick insights, the ability to combine data from multiple sources, Excel integration, and responsive layouts for optimal viewing on any device.
- Funnel’s Experience: Hearing from Alexander Billington at Funnel provided a compelling real-world example of how Studio in Looker is empowering their teams to gain faster insights and make data-driven decisions more independently.
Studio in Looker promises to accelerate organizations looking to foster a data-literate culture. By empowering more users to self-serve their data needs, analytics teams can focus on more complex analysis and strategic initiatives.
4. Conversational Analytics: The Future of AI-Powered Insights in BigQuery and Looker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXzPQRdXi7c
Link to PDF of Presentation
The session, “A new era of AI for BI with Conversational Analytics for BigQuery and Looker” offered a fascinating glimpse into the future of BI, where natural language queries unlock the power of data for everyone.
Key takeaways:
- Making BI Accessible Through Natural Language: Ask questions about your data in plain English and receive instant, accurate answers. Conversational Analytics makes this a reality, breaking down the technical barriers to data exploration.
- Looker’s Semantic Model: The Foundation for Accurate AI Insights: Looker’s robust semantic model provides the necessary context for AI to understand user intent and deliver reliable results. This ensures that conversational queries are grounded in a trusted and well-defined data foundation.
- New Features for Enhanced Development: Beyond Conversational Analytics, the session also touched upon new features like Looker reports and continuous integration, streamlining the development and deployment process for Looker content.
- ADEO’s AI Journey: The customer spotlight from ADEO provided a compelling example of how organizations are leveraging AI to enhance their analytics capabilities and drive business value.
- Looker’s Agentic Architecture: Understanding the underlying Agentic architecture sheds light on how Looker intelligently manages the query lifecycle, ensuring efficient and accurate responses to conversational queries.
Conversational Analytics represents a significant leap forward in making BI more intuitive and accessible to a wider audience. By leveraging the power of AI, Looker is empowering users to ask questions and get answers in a way that feels natural and seamless.
5. Gemini in Looker: Unleashing AI to Supercharge Your BI Workflow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAbDDUrCzwU
Link to PDF of Presentation
“The AI Revolution in BI: A Deep Dive into Gemini in Looker” focused on the integration and benefits of Gemini in Looker. This session showcased how AI is not just about asking questions but augmenting the entire BI workflow for both analysts and business users.
Key highlights of Gemini in Looker:
- Enhancing Data Literacy and Fluency: Gemini in Looker acts as an intelligent assistant, helping users understand data, interpret visualizations, and formulate insightful questions. This empowers everyone to become more data-fluent.
- AI-Powered Storytelling: AI can help you craft compelling data narratives by suggesting relevant visualizations and insights. Gemini in Looker is making data storytelling more efficient and impactful.
- Intelligent Assistance Across the Platform: The demo showcased AI-powered assistants for various tasks, including generating complex formulas, writing LookML code more efficiently, and suggesting optimal visualizations based on the data. This significantly boosts productivity for analysts.
- The Importance of Data Governance for AI: The session underscored the critical role of robust data governance in ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness of AI-driven insights. Looker’s strong governance capabilities are essential for harnessing the power of Gemini effectively.
- Supermetrics Customer Story: The customer spotlight from Supermetrics shares their experience and tips for Gemini in Looker.
We look forward to seeing you all next year!
