Threads conversational analytics is redefining how teams ask questions of their data, blending natural language with powerful insights. Built on the same framework as the Notebook Agent, it delivers conversational analytics at scale for everyone. This is part of Threads analytics, a broader family within the Hex analytics platform that unifies self-serve analytics with guided data exploration. By leveraging semantic models and curated context, Threads delivers trustworthy answers you can act on. Explore data with natural-language prompts and interactive visuals, all accessible today.
From another angle, this shift resembles conversational data exploration, where questions become guided conversations with your data. Instead of static dashboards, teams interact through natural language prompts, turning queries into actionable insights. This approach relies on semantic models and contextual reasoning to connect ideas across datasets, surfacing relevant results with clarity. In Hex, this mindset supports self-serve analytics and transparent collaboration, helping business users and data teams co-create answers and dashboards.
Introducing Threads: Conversational Analytics for Everyone
Threads introduces a new interface for analytics designed for everyone who wants fast answers from data, delivering Threads conversational analytics as a natural-language-first experience within the Hex analytics platform.
Built on the same framework as the Notebook Agent, Threads emphasizes conversational analytics and self-serve analytics to democratize data insights. By leveraging your Hex workspace context, it delivers relevant results while keeping governance and data quality at the center.
From Hex Workspace to Interactive Visuals: Linking Data and Visualizations with Threads
Threads pulls data connections, projects, semantic models, and schema docs from your Hex workspace, letting you create vivid visuals directly from natural language queries within the Hex platform.
When you click into visuals in Explore, you can refine parameters, drill into details, and reuse visuals in dashboards, all while Threads preserves context and offers interactive exploration for deeper data understanding.
Self-Serve Analytics with Threads: A New Era for Business Users
Threads enables business users to perform self-serve analytics by asking questions in plain language and receiving charts, tables, and explanations without overburdening the data team.
The data team remains in control with governance around semantic models and endorsed tables, while Threads provides a trusted path to insights that fit within the Hex analytics platform.
Semantic Modeling with the Modeling Agent in Hex
The Modeling Agent speeds up writing and validating semantic models and can synthesize your existing Hex work into coherent semantic models that Threads can leverage for analytics.
With a diff view and version history, teams can review proposed changes, collaborate easily, and maintain a shared source of truth for semantic modeling within the Hex ecosystem.
Open Semantic Interchange and Interoperability
We joined the Open Semantic Interchange initiative to promote interoperable semantic models and portable interchange formats, reducing lock-in and increasing flexibility for teams.
Semantic Sync and related integrations help data teams reuse models across tools, ensuring that the Hex analytics platform remains at the center of an interoperable analytics stack.
From Notebook Agent to Thread: Bridging Analysis and Collaboration
The Notebook Agent shares the same underlying framework as Threads, so insights published as notes or notebooks remain accessible and auditable within Hex.
When insights are ready, Threads can reference them as context in future answers, enabling a virtuous loop where knowledge built in Hex continuously improves subsequent analytics.
Context is King: Enhancing AI Accuracy in Hex
Accurate analytics start with rich context. Threads leverages the semantic layer and your workspace data to deliver trustworthy answers powered by curated context.
The Hex environment provides data connections, projects, and schema docs, which Threads uses to keep results relevant and aligned with organizational governance.
Mobile-First Experience: Threads on the Go
Threads is designed to look great on mobile, delivering a seamless, prompt-driven analytics experience wherever you are.
Use Threads on mobile to ask questions, explore insights, and respond to colleagues on the go, without sacrificing power or context.
Governance and Trust: Data Teams as Stewards
Data teams define and govern what AI responses can access, ensuring trust through control of semantic models and endorsed warehouse tables within the Hex platform.
Hex provides all the tools to define what is trustworthy and how AI should use it, maintaining governance while enabling powerful self-serve analytics.
Explore Evolution: No-Code Visualization for Everyone
Explore has evolved into a richer, no-code data viz experience that enables teams to identify top N segments and apply aggregate calcs without writing code.
With Pivot totals, subtotals, and more, this evolution keeps business users engaged while staying tightly integrated into the Hex analytics platform and its semantic models.
Semantic Modeling Deep Dive: Snapshot Tables and Cross-Model Calcs
New semantic model features let you define snapshot tables with semi-additive measures, enabling selective data slices such as the latest month for precise analysis.
Cross-model calculations let you pull a dimension from one semantic model into a calc in another, as long as a join path exists, expanding the analytical possibilities across models.
Getting Started Today: Live Demos, Beta Access, and How to Try
Everything described is live today, with some features in beta that may evolve, and you can join a live event on October 7 to hear from customers like PandaDoc about self-serve adoption.
Explore public beta access for Explorers+ on Team and Enterprise plans, with extended AI usage during early access, and options to get started for free or request a demo to see Threads in action.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Threads in the Hex analytics platform, and how does it enable conversational analytics?
Threads is a conversational analytics interface built into Hex that lets anyone ask questions and get data-backed answers. It leverages the Notebook Agent framework, pulls context from your Hex workspace, and uses semantic models to produce trustworthy results.
How does Threads support self-serve analytics for business users?
Threads provides a natural-language, no-code way to explore data and generate charts without writing code. By surfacing insights from semantic models and curated workspace context, it enables self-serve analytics while keeping responses grounded in trusted data.
What role do semantic models play in Threads’ answers?
Semantic models underpin Threads’ reasoning, enabling cross-model calculations and context-aware responses. They help ensure consistency between data definitions and the answers Threads returns.
How can I use the Modeling Agent to create semantic models in Hex?
The Modeling Agent speeds up writing and validating semantic model definitions. It can inspect your Hex project, synthesize code into semantic models, and help you join multiple models when needed.
What is the Notebook Agent and how does it relate to Threads conversational analytics?
The Notebook Agent lets data teams convert a Thread into a notebook for deeper inspection, debugging, or audit trails. Since Threads and notebooks share the same framework, insights can be extended or reused across analytics work.
How does Threads conversational analytics leverage Hex workspace context to improve accuracy?
Threads pulls context from your workspace—data connections, projects, endorsed tables, and schema docs—so answers are relevant and trustworthy. It can reuse existing Explore cells and other tools to build richer responses.
What is Explore and how does it enhance Threads conversational analytics?
Explore is Hex’s no-code data viz experience. It powers Threads to generate interactive visuals, supports features like Top N and aggregate calculations, and lets you dive deeper with the same data within Threads.
Can Threads conversational analytics be used on mobile within the Hex analytics platform?
Yes. Threads is designed with mobile in mind, letting you ask questions and view results on the go.
How can data teams govern access and trust in Threads conversational analytics?
Data teams define who can access semantic models and endorsed warehouse tables, and set rules for how AI uses data. Hex provides tooling to enforce trusted data usage and maintain governance over Threads outputs.
What is the future roadmap for Threads, including self-serve analytics and semantic models?
Hex plans to improve observability of Threads usage and answers, enable Slack integrations, expand data apps from threads, and deepen interoperability with semantic models and the Open Semantic Interchange initiative.
How can I try Threads today and what availability options exist on Hex?
Threads is available to Explorers+ as a public beta on Team and Enterprise plans, with extended AI usage limits during early access. You can get started for free and request a demo if needed.
How can I share and reuse insights from Threads in notebooks or data apps?
When insights are ready, you can save a thread as a notebook project or publish work as context Threads can reference later. This makes sharing analyses with stakeholders easy and supports self-serve analytics across teams.
| Topic | Key Points |
|---|---|
| Overview | Threads: conversational analytics for everyone; all-new interface built on the Notebook Agent; live features available today. |
| Core capabilities | Answer questions with data; prompts, context, and tools designed for conversational insights. |
| Data context and sources | Pulls context from your Hex workspace (data connections, projects, semantic models, workspace rules, endorsed tables, and schema docs) to keep answers relevant and trustworthy. |
| Visualization & Explore integration | Uses Explore cells for interactive, beautiful data visualizations; can click into them to edit and explore more deeply. |
| Notebook workflow | Thread can be turned into a notebook for deeper analysis, troubleshooting, and auditing; published work provides context for future answers. |
| Data governance & trust | Data teams control access and define what non-technical users can view; Hex tools help define trustworthy data and interoperability. |
| Availability & roadmap | Everything is live now with some beta features; public beta for Explorers+; early access period includes extended AI usage; upcoming features like observability and Slack integration. |
| Modeling & Explore enhancements | Improvements to the Modeling Agent (diff view, version history, cross-model calculations, snapshot tables) and Explore enhancements (Top N, aggregate calcs, pivot totals). |
Summary
Threads conversational analytics empowers everyone to ask questions and get data-backed answers directly from Hex. This topic summary highlights how Threads provides a no-code, conversation-first analytics experience, leverages Hex workspace context, integrates with Explore and the Notebook Agent, and supports governance by data teams. It also covers ongoing improvements to the modeling workbench, semantic model features, interoperability initiatives, and plans for future capabilities like Slack initiation and data apps built from threads — all aimed at making data analysis faster, more accurate, and accessible in the AI era.
