What This Agent Does
The Data Analyst Agent transforms raw data files (Excel, CSV, PDF, documents) into rich, interactive dashboards with custom widgets—all through natural language prompts. Upload your data and instantly get graphical analysis with charts and graphs. No coding or complex BI tools required.
Time Savings: Create comprehensive dashboards in 10-15 minutes instead of 2-3 hours in Excel/Tableau/Power BI.
Key Capabilities:
- ✅ Upload Excel/CSV/PDF and ask natural language questions about your data
- ✅ Automatic chart and graph generation (bar, line, pie, scatter, heatmaps)
- ✅ Custom dashboard templates with configurable widgets
- ✅ ABC branding compliance (colors, fonts, logos automatically applied)
- ✅ Shareable dashboards via chat links with role-based access
- ✅ Chat with your dashboards to ask questions about the data behind widgets
- ✅ Auto-dashboard generation makes insights accessible to everyone
Getting Started
Step 1: Access the Agent
- Login to Cortx portal with ABC credentials
- Navigate to “Core Agents” → “DataAnalystAgent”
- Agent greets you : “Upload your data file and I’ll help you analyze it!“
Step 2: Upload Your Data
Supported File Types:
- Excel: .xlsx, .xlsm, .xls (including multiple sheets)
- CSV: .csv (comma-separated values)
- TSV: .tsv (tab-separated values)
- PDF: Tables extracted from PDF reports
- Word: Tables from .docx documents
- Google Sheets: Export and upload
What to Upload:
- Sales data
- Financial reports
- Customer metrics
- Branch performance data
- Survey results
- Transaction logs
- Any structured data
How to Upload:
Click “Upload File” button → Select file from computer → Wait for confirmation
Agent responds:
“I’ve analyzed your file: Branch_Performance_2025.xlsx
I found:
– 250 records
– 12 columns (Branch ID, Branch Name, Region, Revenue, Costs, Customer Count, NPS Score, etc.)
– Data spans: Jan 2025 – Dec 2025
What would you like to know about this data?”
Step 3: Start Analyzing
You Have Two Options:
Option A: Ask Agent for Automatic Insights
You: “Give me insights from this data.”
Agent: “Here’s what I found:
Overall Performance:
– Total revenue across all branches: $47.2M
– Average branch revenue: $188.8K
– Top performing region: North (avg $215K per branch)
– Lowest performing region: South (avg $162K per branch)
Key Insights:
– 15 branches (60%) exceeded revenue targets
– 8 branches (32%) are underperforming (below 85% of target)
– Strong correlation between customer count and revenue (r=0.87)
– NPS scores range from 42 to 68 (average: 55)
Areas of Concern:
– 5 branches need urgent attention (revenue < 70% of target)
– South region consistently lower performance across all metrics
Would you like me to visualize any of these insights?”
Agent proactively analyzes and highlights patterns, trends, outliers.
Option B: Ask Specific Questions
You: “Which are the top 5 performing branches by revenue?”
Agent: “Top 5 Branches by Revenue:
1. Downtown Main Branch: $425K (Region: North)
2. Westside Financial Center: $398K (Region: West)
3. Harbor District Branch: $387K (Region: North)
4. Tech Hub Branch: $361K (Region: West)
5. University Avenue Branch: $342K (Region: East)
Would you like to see this as a chart?”
Automatic Chart Generation
Agent automatically creates visualizations:
Example 1: Bar Chart
You: “Show me revenue by region.”
Agent: [Generates bar chart]
– North: $2.8M
– South: $1.6M
– East: $2.1M
– West: $2.4M
[ABC branded colors, proper labels, clean design]
“The North region leads with $2.8M, 17% higher than the overall average.”
Example 2: Line Chart (Trends)
You: “Show me revenue trends over the year.”
Agent: [Generates line chart showing monthly revenue]
– January: $3.2M
– February: $3.4M
– […]
– December: $4.8M
“Revenue shows consistent growth throughout the year with 50% increase from January ($3.2M) to December ($4.8M).
Peak occurred in Q4 (Nov-Dec) coinciding with holiday season.”
Example 3: Pie Chart (Distribution)
You: “What’s the distribution of customer satisfaction ratings?”
Agent: [Generates pie chart] – Excellent (9-10): 35%
– Good (7-8): 42%
– Fair (5-6): 18%
– Poor (1-4): 5%
“77% of customers rate us Good or Excellent. Focus area:
23% in Fair/Poor categories.”
Example 4: Scatter Plot (Correlations)
You: “Is there a relationship between customer count and revenue?”
Agent: [Generates scatter plot with trend line]
– Each point represents one branch
– X-axis: Customer Count
– Y-axis: Revenue
– Trend line shows strong positive correlation (r=0.87)
“Strong correlation: branches with more customers generate proportionally higher revenue. Outliers: 2 high-customer/low-revenue branches may have retention or product penetration issues.”
Example 5: Heatmap
You: “Show me performance across regions and quarters.”
Agent: [Generates heatmap]
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
North $680K $710K $725K $785K [Dark Green]
South $390K $405K $418K $487K [Light Green]
East $510K $528K $542K $620K [Medium Green]
West $585K $598K $610K $695K [Dark Green]
“North and West regions consistently outperform. South shows improvement but remains lowest. All regions show Q4 strength.”
Creating Custom Dashboards
Dashboard Templates
Instead of individual charts, create comprehensive dashboards with multiple widgets:
You: “Create a branch performance dashboard.”
Agent: “I’ll create a dashboard with these widgets:
1. Branch Performance Overview (top-level metrics)
2. Top 5 Performing Branches (bar chart)
3. Bottom 5 Branches Needing Attention (bar chart)
4. Regional Comparison (pie chart)
5. Monthly Revenue Trend (line chart)
6. Customer Satisfaction by Branch (scatter plot)
Shall I proceed with this layout?”
You: “Yes, but add a widget showing cost efficiency (revenue vs. costs).”
Agent: [Creates dashboard with 7 widgets, ABC branded]
Widget Types Available
Metric Cards:
Single number displays
Example: “Total Revenue: $47.2M” with change indicator (+12% vs. last year)
Charts:
Bar charts (comparisons)
Line charts (trends over time)
Pie charts (distributions)
Scatter plots (relationships)
Heatmaps (multi-dimensional comparisons)
Area charts (cumulative trends)
Tables:
Sortable data tables
Top/bottom N rankings
Detailed drill-downs
Text Insights:
Written summaries
Key findings
Recommendations
Dashboard Layout Customization
Define your dashboard structure:
You: “Create a 2-column dashboard:
Left column (wider):
– Large revenue trend line chart (top)
– Regional performance bar chart (bottom)
Right column (narrower):
– Key metrics cards: Total Revenue, Avg Branch Revenue, Top Branch
– Top 5 branches table
– Bottom 5 branches table
Use ABC’s executive dashboard color scheme.”
Agent: [Creates custom layout matching specifications]
ABC-Specific Use Cases
Use Case 1: Branch Performance Analysis
Your Scenario: Monthly review of all retail branch metrics
What You Upload:
Branch_Performance_December_2025.xlsx containing:
– Branch ID and name
– Region
– Revenue (actual vs. target)
– Expenses
– Customer count (active, new, churned)
– NPS scores
– Product penetration rates
– Staff count and productivity metrics
What You Ask:
“Create a comprehensive branch performance dashboard showing:
1. Overall performance summary (total revenue, avg per branch, etc.)
2. Top 10 and bottom 10 branches
3. Regional comparison
4. Revenue vs. target achievement rate by branch
5. Customer satisfaction trends
6. Cost efficiency analysis (revenue per dollar spent)
7. Identify branches needing urgent intervention”
Agent Output:
Full dashboard with all requested widgets
Automatic insights highlighting concerning trends
ABC branded, ready to present to leadership
Exportable to PDF or shareable via link
Time Saved: 2-3 hours of Excel work → 10 minutes
Use Case 2: Financial Performance Reporting
Your Scenario: Quarterly financial review for board presentation
What You Upload:
Q4_2025_Financial_Results.xlsx with:
– Revenue by product line
– Expenses by category
– Profit margins
– Year-over-year comparisons
– Budget vs. actual
– Geographic breakdown
What You Ask:
“Create a financial performance dashboard for Q4 2025 board meeting:
– Executive summary (revenue, profit, margins)
– Revenue breakdown by product line (show top 5)
– Expense analysis (variance from budget)
– Profitability by region
– Quarterly trend (Q1-Q4 comparison)
– Year-over-year growth metrics
Highlight any areas >10% variance from budget or forecast.”
Agent Output:
Board-ready financial dashboard
Variances highlighted in red/green
Explanatory text for key metrics
One-click export to PDF for pre-read materials
Use Case 3: Customer Behavior Analysis
Your Scenario: Understanding customer segmentation and behavior patterns
What You Upload:
Customer_Data_2025.csv with:
– Customer demographics (age, income, location)
– Account types and balances
– Transaction history (frequency, amounts, types)
– Digital engagement (app usage, web logins)
– Product holdings (checking, savings, loans, credit cards)
– Lifetime value calculations
What You Ask:
“Analyze customer segments and create dashboard showing:
1. Customer distribution by value tier (high/medium/low value)
2. Product penetration by segment
3. Digital vs. branch usage patterns
4. Churn risk indicators
5. Cross-sell opportunities
6. Customer lifetime value distribution
Focus on actionable insights for product marketing team.”
Agent Output:
Segmentation dashboard with clear customer profiles
Opportunity sizing (e.g., “40% of high-value customers have only 1 product – cross-sell opportunity of $12M annual revenue”)
Behavioral patterns visualized
Churn risk scoring with early warning indicators
Use Case 4: Campaign Performance Tracking
Your Scenario: Marketing campaign results analysis
What You Upload:
Campaign_Results_Q4.xlsx:
– Campaign name and type
– Channels used (email, social, digital ads, branch)
– Budget spent
– Impressions/reach
– Clicks/engagement
– Leads generated
– Conversions
– Revenue generated
– Customer acquisition cost
– ROI by campaign
What You Ask:
“Create a campaign performance dashboard showing:
– Overall campaign ROI and performance
– Best performing campaigns (by ROI, conversions, engagement)
– Channel effectiveness comparison
– Cost per acquisition by campaign
– Budget efficiency (actual spend vs. allocated)
– Recommendations for Q1 budget allocation based on Q4 performance
Rank campaigns by ROI and flag any with negative returns.”
Agent Output:
Campaign scorecard
Channel mix recommendations
Budget reallocation suggestions based on performance
Clear winners and losers identified
Use Case 5: Operational Efficiency Metrics
Your Scenario: Process improvement analysis across operations
What You Upload:
Operations_Metrics_2025.xlsx:
– Process completion times
– Error rates
– Staff productivity metrics
– Queue/wait times
– SLA compliance rates
– Resource utilization
– Cost per transaction
What You Ask:
“Analyze operational efficiency and create dashboard showing:
1. Process time averages and trends
2. SLA compliance by process type
3. Error rate analysis (identify high-error processes)
4. Staff productivity comparison
5. Cost efficiency metrics
6. Bottleneck identification
7. Improvement opportunity sizing
Focus on processes where we’re underperforming vs. benchmarks.”
Agent Output:
Operations health dashboard
Bottlenecks clearly identified
Improvement opportunities quantified (e.g., “Reducing loan processing time by 1 day saves $450K annually”)
Benchmarking against industry standards
Interactive Features
Chat with Your Dashboard
Once dashboard is created, you can ask questions about the data:
Dashboard Created: “Branch Performance Dashboard”
You: “Which branch has the highest customer satisfaction?”
Agent: “University Avenue Branch has the highest NPS score of 68. They serve 450 customers with average account balance of $12,400. This branch consistently ranks in top 3 for satisfaction.”
You: “What’s driving their high satisfaction?”
Agent: “Analyzing branch attributes:
– Longest average tenure of staff (5.2 years vs. 3.1 avg)
– Highest product cross-sell rate (3.2 products per customer vs. 2.1 avg)
– Shortest average wait time (4.3 minutes vs. 8.7 avg)
– Above-average digital adoption (72% vs. 58% avg)
Key driver appears to be experienced staff + efficient operations.”
Continuous Conversation:
Ask follow-up questions
Drill into specific data points
Request different visualizations
Export specific findings
Suggested Questions
Agent proactively suggests relevant questions you might want to ask:
Agent: “Here are some questions you might want to explore:
Performance Analysis:
– Which branches improved the most compared to last quarter?
– What’s the correlation between staff count and revenue?
– Show me branches underperforming by more than 20%
Financial Insights:
– What’s the cost-to-income ratio by region?
– Which branches have the best profit margins?
– Show revenue per employee analysis
Customer Insights:
– What’s the relationship between NPS scores and revenue?
– Which branches are losing customers?
– Customer growth rate by region
Click any question or ask your own!”
Sharing Dashboards
Share with Team
You: “Share this dashboard with the regional managers team.”
Agent: “Who should have access?
– View Only (can see dashboard, can’t modify)
– Comment (can add notes and questions)
– Edit (can modify widgets and layout)”
You: “Give view access to all regional managers.
Give edit access to my direct reports.”
Agent: “Dashboard shared!
– View access: Regional Managers group (23 people)
– Edit access: Sarah Johnson, Mike Chen, Priya Sharma
Share link: https://cortx.abc.com/dashboard/branch-perf-q4-2025
Team members will receive email notification.”
Collaboration Features
Comments on Widgets:
Viewer adds comment on “Bottom 5 Branches” widget:
“South Bay branch needs immediate attention – revenue down 30% vs. last quarter. Schedule intervention meeting for next week.”
Dashboard owner receives notification and can respond.
Version History:
Dashboard: Branch Performance Q4 2025
– v1.0 (Jan 15): Initial creation
– v1.1 (Jan 16): Added cost efficiency widget
– v1.2 (Jan 18): Updated with latest data, added regional breakdown
– v1.3 (Jan 20): Added year-over-year comparison [CURRENT]
Scheduled Updates:
You: “Update this dashboard automatically every Monday morning with the latest data from the shared folder.”
Agent: “Scheduled! Dashboard will refresh every Monday at 8am using data from /shared/branch-performance/weekly-reports/”
Advanced Features
Multiple Data Sources
Combine data from multiple files:
You upload:
– Branch_Revenue.xlsx
– Branch_Costs.xlsx
– Customer_Satisfaction.csv
– Staff_Metrics.xlsx
You: “Merge these files using Branch ID as the key.
Create a comprehensive dashboard combining all metrics.”
Agent: [Merges data, creates unified dashboard]
“I’ve combined all data sources. 250 branches matched across all files. Dashboard now shows revenue, costs, profit, customer metrics, and staff productivity in one view.”
Calculated Metrics
Create new metrics from existing data:
You: “Calculate and add these metrics:
– Profit Margin = (Revenue – Costs) / Revenue * 100
– Revenue per Employee = Revenue / Staff Count
– Customer Acquisition Cost = Marketing Spend / New Customers
– Customer Lifetime Value = Avg Revenue per Customer * Avg Tenure
Add these as new columns and create visualizations.”
Agent: [Calculates metrics, adds to dashboard]
Filtering and Drill-Down
Add interactive filters:
You: “Add filters to this dashboard:
– Region selector (North, South, East, West, All)
– Time period selector (Month, Quarter, Year)
– Performance tier (High, Medium, Low performing branches)
When user changes filter, update all widgets automatically.”
Agent: [Adds interactive filters]
User Experience:
User selects “North Region” + “Q4” + “Low Performing”
→ All charts update to show only North region low performers in Q4
→ Insights regenerate for filtered view
Benchmarking
Compare against targets or benchmarks:
You: “Add benchmark comparison:
– Target revenue per branch: $200K
– Target NPS score: 60
– Industry average profit margin: 18%
Show each branch/metric vs. benchmark.
Use green for above target, red for below.”
Agent: [Adds benchmark lines/indicators to all charts]
“15 branches above revenue target (green),
10 branches below (red), shown with benchmark line at $200K.”
Export Options
Multiple ways to share insights:
PDF Export:
“Export this dashboard as PDF for executive team review.”
→ High-quality PDF with all charts and data
Excel Export:
“Export the underlying data to Excel with all calculated metrics.”
→ Excel file with all data, calculations, pivot tables
PowerPoint Export:
“Create a PowerPoint presentation with key charts from this dashboard.”
→ PPT with one chart per slide, ABC branded
Image Export:
“Export the regional performance chart as PNG for the newsletter.”
→ High-res image file
ABC Branding
DO: Provide Rich Input Context
All dashboards automatically apply ABC brand standards:
✅ Color Palette:
Primary colors for main data series
Accent colors for highlights
Consistent color scheme across all charts
✅ Typography:
- ABC fonts for titles, labels, legends
Proper hierarchy and sizing
✅ Layout:
Clean, professional spacing
ABC logo on dashboards
Consistent widget styling
✅ Chart Styling:
Professional gridlines
Clear axis labels
Readable legends
Appropriate chart types for data
You Don’t Need to Think About Design: Agent handles all formatting automatically. Every dashboard is presentation-ready.
Best Practices
DO: Clean Your Data Before Upload
✅ Good Data:
Consistent column headers
No merged cells
Dates in standard format
No blank rows in middle of data
Clear column names (not “Column1”, “Column2”)
❌ Problematic Data:
Mixed formats (some dates as text, some as numbers)
Subtotals mixed with data rows
Multiple tables on one sheet
Inconsistent naming (North, north, N, NORTH)
Quick Cleanup:
If your data has issues:
1. Remove subtotal rows
2. Standardize column names
3. Convert dates to proper format 4. Remove merged cells
5. Delete empty rows
Or ask agent: “Can you clean this data first?”
Agent will attempt basic cleaning.
DO: Start with Simple Questions
Step 1: “Show me total revenue by region.”
→ Understand data structure
Step 2: “Now break down North region by individual branches.”
→ Drill into details
Step 3: “For top 5 North branches, show monthly trend.”
→ Deep analysis
Step 4: “Create comprehensive North region dashboard.”
→ Full insights
❌ Don’t Jump to Complex Immediately:
“Create a multi-dimensional analysis showing revenue, costs, profit, customer metrics, staff productivity, year-over-year growth,
regional benchmarking, and predictive forecasting all in one dashboard.”
→ Too complex to start. Build incrementally.
DO: Provide Context
✅ Good:
“Analyze this sales data. We’re particularly interested in:
– Q4 performance (holiday season impact)
– Product category trends (electronics vs. home goods)
– Regional differences (urban vs. suburban branches)
– Effect of new loyalty program launched in October
Flag any unusual patterns.”
❌ Too Generic:
“Analyze this file.”
→ Agent doesn’t know what you care about
DO: Iterate on Dashboards
Workflow:
Version 1: “Create basic revenue dashboard”
→ Agent creates initial version
Version 2: “Add customer satisfaction metrics”
→ Agent adds new widgets
Version 3: “Replace pie chart with stacked bar chart”
→ Agent modifies visualization
Version 4: “Add year-over-year comparison”
→ Agent enhances with historical context
Final: “Perfect! Share with team.”
Don’t expect perfection on first try. Build and refine.
DON'T: Overload One Dashboard
⚠️ Too Many Widgets:
Dashboard with 25 widgets showing every possible metric
→ Overwhelming, hard to find insights, slow loading
✅ Better Approach:
Create multiple focused dashboards:
– Executive Summary Dashboard (5-6 key widgets)
– Regional Performance Dashboard (focus on regions)
– Customer Insights Dashboard (customer metrics)
– Operational Efficiency Dashboard (process metrics)
Each serves a specific purpose and audience.
DON'T: Ignore Data Quality Warnings
Agent: ” ⚠️ Warning: I found 15 branches with missing cost data.
These branches will show incomplete profit calculations.
Would you like to:
1. Exclude them from analysis
2. Mark them as ‘incomplete’ in charts
3. Estimate costs based on similar branches”
DON’T: Ignore and proceed
DO: Address data quality issue before analyzing
Prompting Examples
Quick Analysis
“What are the key insights from this data?”
“Show me the top 10 [metric] by [dimension]”
“What trends do you see in [specific column]?”
“Identify any outliers or unusual patterns”
“Compare [metric A] vs [metric B]”
Visualization Requests
“Create a bar chart showing [metric] by [dimension]”
“Show me [metric] trend over time as a line chart”
“Create a pie chart of [dimension] distribution”
“Plot the relationship between [X] and [Y] as a scatter plot”
“Make a heatmap showing [rows] vs [columns]”
Dashboard Creation
“Create a [topic] dashboard with:
– [Widget 1 description]
– [Widget 2 description]
– [Widget 3 description]
Target audience: [who will use this]
Focus: [what they care about most]”
Comparative Analysis
“Compare [Group A] vs [Group B] across all metrics”
“Show me how [current period] compares to [past period]”
“Benchmark our performance against [target/industry standard]”
“Rank all [entities] by [metric] and show top/bottom 10”
Filtering and Segmentation
“Show me only [specific segment] data”
“Filter to [condition], then analyze”
“Break down [metric] by [dimension 1] and [dimension 2]”
“Exclude [specific values] from analysis”
Troubleshooting
Issue: "Agent can't read my Excel file"
Common Causes:
Password-protected file
Corrupted file
Very old Excel format (.xls from Excel 2003)
File too large (>50MB)
Solutions:
1. Remove password protection
2. Save as .xlsx (modern format)
3. For large files: Filter to recent data only, or split into smaller files
4. Check file isn’t corrupted (can you open it in Excel?)
Issue: "Charts look wrong / data doesn't make sense"
Common Causes:
Data interpreted incorrectly (numbers stored as text)
Wrong aggregation (summing when should average)
Duplicates in data
Mismatched joins between files
Solutions:
“I think you’re summing customer counts when you should average them.
Please recalculate using average instead.”
Or: “Check for duplicate Branch IDs in the data.
I think some branches are counted twice.”
Or: “Revenue column is stored as text. Convert to numbers first.”
Issue: "Dashboard is too slow to load"
Causes:
Too much data (millions of rows)
Too many widgets (15+)
Complex calculations
Solutions:
Option 1: “Aggregate data to monthly level instead of daily.”
Option 2: “Filter to most recent 6 months only.”
Option 3: “Split into multiple dashboards instead of one huge dashboard.” Option 4: “Remove widgets that are rarely viewed.”
Issue: "Dashboard doesn't update with new data"
Solutions:
Manual: “Refresh this dashboard with the latest data file.”
[Upload updated file]
Automatic: “Set up automatic refresh from this folder.”
Agent will pull latest file from designated location.
Integration with Other Agents
With PPT Agent - Present Insights
Workflow:
1. Create dashboard in Data Analyst Agent
2. Export key charts as images
3. Open PPT Agent:
“Create a presentation showing our Q4 branch performance analysis.
Use these charts from my dashboard:
[upload chart images]
Create slides covering:
– Executive summary (key metrics)
– Regional performance comparison
– Top performers analysis
– Areas needing attention
– Recommendations
Audience: Leadership team
10 slides maximum”
With Document Agent - Create Written Report
Workflow:
1. Generate insights in Data Analyst Agent
2. Open Document Agent:
“Create a written analysis report from this dashboard data.
[Share dashboard link or export Excel]
Include:
– Executive summary
– Key findings
– Detailed regional analysis
– Trend analysis
– Recommendations
– Appendix with data tables
Format: ABC Standard Analysis Report Template”
With Vendor Evaluation Agent - Analyze Vendor Data
Workflow:
1. Create vendor comparison dashboard
2. Use insights to inform evaluation:
“Here’s performance data on our current vendors.
[Share dashboard]
Use this to inform the vendor evaluation analysis.”
Getting Help
In-Platform:
Help icon (bottom right)
In-app AI assistant
Sample datasets to practice with
Resources:
Video tutorial: Data Analyst Agent Demo
Documentation: docs.xnode.ai
Dashboard template library
Common Questions:
“What file size limits exist?” → 50MB per file recommended
“Can I connect to live databases?” → Yes, via custom integrations (contact IT)
“How often can dashboards refresh?” → Real-time, hourly, daily, weekly, or manual
End of Document Generation Agent User Guide