Blog

This is the second in a series of blog posts about whether ChatGPT can help us with Planning Analytics (PA) / TM1, and more specifically with Turbo Integrator (TI) script. In the first post in the series, I provided some background on AI technology like ChatGPT and really useful AI tools for programmers, like GitHub Copilot. In that post I also showed examples that highlight some of the strengths of ChatGPT, like its ability to understand TM1Py scripts, and some of its risks and weaknesses, like its hallucinations about PA’s history. All ChatGPT responses in this series are from ChatGPT-3.5, unless otherwise specified.

The machines are taking over, haven’t you heard? For all the legitimate concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI) being used to generate deepfakes or write student essays, many of these AI tools can help us be more efficient and tackle repetitive or mundane tasks so that we can focus on far more interesting problems and things that we enjoy. This post focuses on newer natural language generative AI tools, specifically ChatGPT, which has been very much in the news.

In a previous blog post, we strongly encouraged customers who currently use Perspectives for their Planning Analytics & TM1 Excel reporting to consider making plans to switch to the newer Planning Analytics for Excel add-in (“PAfE” for short, previously called “PAx”). PAfE is designed to support the future of Planning Analytics Excel reporting, and offers new reporting options, like Quick Reports, which are not available in Perspectives.

The integration of Microsoft Excel with Planning Analytics, powered by TM1 Server, remains one of the most powerful pieces in the overall planning, modeling, and other solution capabilities provided by Planning Analytics! In a recent webinar of the same name, which you can find in our QueBIT video catalog, we focused on that integration and made a strong case for the Planning Analytics for Excel add-in as the Excel integration standard-bearer, going forward.

IBM returned to Miami this year with a renamed and somewhat-rebranded version of the conference formerly known as IBM Analytics University. The concept of this new IBM Data and AI Forum was structured around IBM’s “AI ladder” and the rungs of that conceptual ladder: Modernize, Collect, Organize, Analyze and Infuse. It should come as no surprise that “AI” was, thus, more prevalent as a topic of discussion.

Think 2018, which was held in Las Vegas March 19-22, was as big (about 30,000 in attendance) as it was bold: we are entering “an era of man plus machines” where we will be “putting smart to work in a smarter business”, IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty said during her Chairman’s keynote address. Much of the buzz around the conference was focused on future technology in which IBM is investing heavily, such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and more. And while the conference provided opportunities to network and learn more about the IBM analytics software we use right now, which I’ll share in this post, I think it is crucial to frame that in the context of what is coming next and to see how we at QueBIT, as trusted experts in analytics, have already been preparing our customers to embrace that future with open arms.

In this blog post we’ll share some of the highlights from this year’s IBM Vision conference, including a look ahead to some of the things that are either coming soon or are even available today from IBM and QueBIT.

In our second article in our series on the TM1 SDK we dive into TM1 REST API. 

Gary Quirke and I had the pleasure of organizing and presenting “A Power Users' Guide to the TM1 SDK and Planning Analytics” at the 2016 IBM Vision conference on Orlando, Florida. Our goal for the presentation was to provide attendees with a picture of the possible with the TM1 SDK, targeted toward both non-programmers and programmers who simply want to understand the alternative ways in which we can solve real business problems, new and old, using the powerful TM1 SDK tools that IBM has provided, which include the REST API, Java Extensions and TM1 Web APIs. We received very positive feedback, so thank you to everyone who was able to attend!