Your first questions

1. Welcome

Welcome to this introductory course on Databricks Genie. Let's discover how to turn questions into insights using nothing but plain language.

2. Meet the instructor

First, meet your instructor. This course was developed in partnership with Gang Wang, a Senior Data Scientist who has been using Databricks for over three years. Gang has hands-on experience building and curating Genie spaces that empower business users to explore data through natural language. With a passion for making data accessible to everyone, Gang is ready to guide you through turning plain English questions into instant, actionable insights. Let's dive in.

3. Traditional analytics

Picture this: You're a data analyst at Bakehouse, a bakery franchise, and your manager asks, "What were total sales last quarter?" Simple question, right? But with traditional tools, you need to remember exact table names like sales_transactions and sales_franchises, write SQL queries, join multiple tables, and hope there are no syntax errors. Business users wait hours or even days for data teams to answer what seem like straightforward questions. Analysts spend their time writing repetitive queries instead of finding insights that drive decisions.

4. The Genie-assisted approach

Now imagine just asking that question in plain English and getting an instant answer with a chart. That's Databricks Genie, a junior analyst on call. Instead of waiting for a dashboard update or a data team ticket, you just ask. You don't need to know table names like sales_transactions or franchiseID. You just need to know your business. And anyone who doesn't know SQL is no longer locked out; they can explore data independently.

5. Genie spaces

Genie works through Genie spaces, and a space is not a dashboard. A dashboard is a fixed output. A Genie space is an environment for live exploration. Behind the scenes, a Genie space has been set up by your data team. It understands your data, the tables available, and the business metrics that matter. The interface is straightforward. You've got your chat window where you type questions. Sample questions help you get started. The results panel shows tables and charts. Genie doesn't search; it writes code that calculates. And if you're curious, click "Show code" to see the SQL. That's the Glass Box: Genie is transparent, not magic. You can audit everything it does. One thing to note: Genie actually has two modes. The standard chat mode, which is what this course focuses on, handles single-turn analytical questions. There's also an Agent mode, currently in Public Preview, designed for complex multi-step research questions that require reasoning across multiple queries. We'll stick with the standard mode throughout this course.

6. Conversational analytics in action

Let's see how it works in practice. Here we are in the Bakehouse Demo space. You type a straightforward business question: "What were total sales?" Genie thinks for a moment, queries the transactions table, and returns the answer. Simple SQL, no complexity needed. [Add 5 second pause] Want to dig deeper? Refine right in the conversation: "Show that by country." Genie remembers the context, it knows you mean total sales, and returns a bar chart with a breakdown. Australia leads at twenty-four thousand, followed by the USA and Japan. [Add 5 second pause] You can even say "Show this as a pie chart" and Genie adjusts the visualization instantly. Three questions, three answers, all in under a minute. This insight used to take thirty minutes of SQL work. Genie delivered it in seconds.

7. Genie complements your BI stack

One more thing: Genie is a complement to traditional BI like Tableau or Power BI, not a replacement. Dashboards handle known questions, routine monitoring. Genie handles the long tail: the infinite ad-hoc questions that dashboards can't anticipate. Together, they give you complete analytics coverage. That's where the real productivity gain lives.

8. Let's practice!

Explore the Genie interface, ask your first questions, and discover how natural language unlocks your data. Let's get started!

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