Most businesses default to easy, surface-level data questions that are quick to ask and answer, but ultimately low-value. The best businesses ask the harder ones: questions that drive real decisions and better outcomes. With AI, these questions no longer require technical analysts or wait time. They just require curiosity. Read More.
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers” - Pablo Picasso
It sounds provocative, but Picasso was pointing to a deeper truth: answers are only as strong as the questions that shape them. If you start with the wrong question, even the most sophisticated machine can’t help you.
If you ask a shallow question, expect a shallow insight. The leverage isn’t in the output, it’s in the input.
This principle defines how we should think about analytics. Businesses obsess over dashboards and faster answers, but the real power lies upstream in the question itself. When the question is thoughtful, specific, and anchored in intent, the insights that follow are sharper and more useful.
AI has shifted the landscape. Computers used to be bound by rules. Today, they can interpret, reason, and follow up. We've all had those moments with AI tools that feel more like a conversation than a command.
However, none of that matters if the starting point is vague. AI can sharpen your thinking, but it can’t replace it. It can’t ask the first question for you.
That’s why Picasso’s quote still matters. In a world where AI can answer almost anything, the real differentiator is the question. It’s the difference between signal and noise, between insight and indecision, between momentum and “analysis paralysis”.
Not all questions are created equal
Most business questions fall into three tiers:
Descriptive questions are common. They're the currency of dashboards. They’re quick to ask and quick to automate, but rarely spark action.
Why the best questions get left behind
The highest-value questions live in the Diagnostic and Frontier tiers, but they take more effort. They usually require human input (analysts, decision-makers, cross-functional teams) and deeper context. These questions don’t live in a chart; they live in conversations, workshops, and strategy sessions. They take time to surface, time to explore, and often time to answer.
So they get deferred, or worse, never asked. Not because they aren’t valuable, but because they’re harder to get to, and because they can’t be answered with a simple dashboard filter or prebuilt report.
What AI changes, and what it doesn’t
AI compresses the traditional barriers that surround Diagnostic and Frontier questions. By reducing the cost of iteration, it makes these higher-value questions more accessible and efficient. It doesn’t solve them instantly, but it gives you more freedom to ask and the leverage to answer.
Large language models are especially powerful in this context. They understand natural language, so non-technical users can start with rough questions and refine them in conversation.
To be clear, AI doesn't instantly solve diagnostic or frontier questions. But it gives users the scaffolding to approach them through the right lens. It helps clarify what is truly being asked, and what follow-up is needed.
For example, if a revenue leader asks, "Why is expansion revenue slowing in EMEA?" a tool like Zoe might respond with: "Do you want to look at churned accounts, downgrade rates, or changes in seat growth for existing customers?" That framing accelerates the path to insight.
AI gives users the freedom to explore harder questions and the guidance to ask better ones, but you still have to ask.
The Future Belongs to the Curious
We believe Intelligent Analytics is ultimately about better answers, but that all starts with better questions.
Curiosity used to be limited by access, tools, and technical skill. Now it isn’t. AI expands what’s possible, but the spark still has to come from the human.
The most powerful move in analytics today isn’t writing the perfect query. It’s asking the question no one else thought to ask.
Picasso wasn’t wrong. He just didn’t live long enough to meet Zoe.
