In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, Business Intelligence (BI) and visualization have undergone significant transformations. Once characterized by bulky, complex and static tabular reports, the domain of visualizations is now leaning towards more agile, efficient and intelligent solutions like interactive dashboards and self-service BI. I recall that when I worked in the EDP (Electronic Data Processing Department) of a manufacturing company, we used to print ~400 pages of report every day on a dot matrix printer! And now, we are working on cutting edge technology, where we are setting up Visualization Centre of Excellence for our customers, where we enable their business users to leverage the GenAI based power for drawing insights. Business Users want agility so that they can talk to the data, dive deeper into the data and perform analytics on their own in addition to the readily available dashboards and reports.
This blog explores the journey from legacy analytics processes to the forefront of modern technology and the rise of Generative AI (GenAI) to accelerate the visualization journey. GenAI is redefining what business users expect from analytical systems. Not only the business users, enterprises also expect a huge productivity gain in all the analytics-related operations. For example, the migration from one BI platform to another is projected to happen much faster, reducing overall transition timelines. Earlier BI migrations were small in scale—often fewer than a hundred reports—and still took close to a year to complete. Today, enterprises demand migrations at an entirely different order of magnitude, with thousands of reports expected to move in under a year. We have thoughtfully evolved our offerings to support high‑volume, high‑velocity BI migrations with confidence.
Changing Expectations of Business Users
Analytics is undergoing a profound transformation. In the past, the world revolved around tabular charts and static dashboards. Business users would download pages after pages of data and then carry out the analysis in silos. Users then shifted to modern dashboarding tools, with visually appealing charts.
Today, the paradigm is shifting further. Businesses demand instant answers to ad-hoc questions, natural language interactions that replace complex filters and insights that speak directly to decision-making. The question is not only about data availability; it’s about clarity and context.
Tomorrow, powered by GenAI, analytics will go beyond its traditional boundaries. Data is getting democratized, accessible to everyone without technical barriers. Conversational interfaces will allow users to ‘talk’ to their data, while automated storytelling will craft narratives that make sense of complexity. Beyond insights, predictive recommendations and scenario-based simulations will guide decisions.
The future is not just about visualizing data; it is about creating an intelligent dialogue between humans and information.
Do Dashboards Still Matter?
Absolutely! But their role is changing. In the new analytics landscape, dashboards are no longer the final destination; they serve as intuitive entry points into a richer, more dynamic experience. Instead of static charts, users will increasingly interact with AI-driven narratives that explain trends and anomalies in plain language, complementing the visuals. Infographics and charts will be auto-generated in context, tailored to the question at hand, making insights faster and more meaningful.
So, we are not exactly replacing dashboards, but transforming them into gateways for intelligent, conversational analytics.
How Will Insights Be Derived?
How will insights be derived in the new era of analytics? The focus is shifting from exploration to explanation.
Instead of spending hours slicing and dicing data, users will simply ask questions like, “Why did sales drop in Q3?” and expect instant clarity. AI will step into deliver root cause analysis, highlight predictive trends and even suggest prescriptive actions, such as “Increase marketing spend in region X”. These insights won’t live in isolation—they’ll be seamlessly embedded into everyday business workflows, surfacing in tools like Teams, Slack, or CRM systems, ensuring decisions happen where work happens.
Impact on Backend Development
The impact on backend development will be profound. Today, most effort goes into building dashboards, defining hierarchies and crafting static visuals.
In the GenAI-driven future, that paradigm flips. Backend teams will focus on semantic models that enable natural language understanding, robust APIs for conversational AI and airtight data quality and governance to ensure trustworthy outputs. Static dashboards will give way to dynamic visual generation, triggered by context and user intent.
This evolution demands new skills—prompt engineering, AI model integration and data storytelling frameworks—making backend development not just about data pipelines, but about powering intelligent, adaptive experiences.
BI migrations are also undergoing a radical transformation. Traditionally, these projects were massive undertakings, spanning months and years, involving manual report inventories and painstaking dashboard rebuilds. In the GenAI era, that model is obsolete. Migrations now need to be faster, smarter and value-driven, leveraging AI to automate discovery, rationalization and conversion. Instead of brute-force replication, the focus shifts to semantic alignment, metric consistency and intelligent mapping.
At Persistent, we accelerate this journey through the iAURA BI Migrate module combined with our Rationalization Accelerator, enabling us to unify, cleanse and modernize legacy reports at scale—often in a fraction of the time. This patented approach not only speeds up migration but also ensures a future-ready architecture optimized for conversational analytics and dynamic visual generation.
Conclusion: Pioneering The New Paradigm
Business Intelligence (BI) is no longer about static dashboards and manual drilldowns, it’s about creating intelligent, adaptive systems that answer questions, predict outcomes and guide decisions in real time.
Dashboards are not disappearing anytime soon, but they are evolving. They will serve as gateways to richer, AI-driven narratives and dynamically generated visuals. The focus of insights will move from mere exploration to meaningful explanation, powered by advanced capabilities such as root cause analysis, predictive modelling and prescriptive actions. These intelligent insights will be seamlessly embedded into everyday workflows, integrating with collaboration platforms and CRM systems to make decision-making more intuitive and actionable.
On the backend, the transformation is even more dramatic. The focus moves from building hierarchies and visuals to semantic modelling, conversational APIs and robust data governance, ensuring trustworthy AI outputs. Developers will need new skills—prompt engineering, AI integration and data storytelling frameworks—to deliver these experiences. BI migrations, once lengthy and resource-heavy, are now accelerated through GenAI methodologies and tools like Persistent’s iAURA BI Migrate and Rationalization modules, enabling faster, smarter modernization while aligning with future-ready architectures.
The message is clear: BI is evolving from a reporting function into a decision intelligence ecosystem. Organizations that embrace this shift by investing in semantic layers, AI-driven insights and agile migration strategies will not just keep pace; they’ll lead the way in turning data into decisive action.
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Authors’ Profile
Deepa Deshpande
Vice President – Technology
