Sisense is an API-first, AI-powered Analytics Platform as a Service (AnPaaS) company that helps organizations analyze, visualize, and embed data insights into everyday workflows and applications. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sisense CEO Ariel Katz to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Ariel Katz’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Katz said:
“Before joining Sisense, I spent 21 years at Microsoft. My tenure there was packed with transitions; I continually sought roles that allowed me to explore new areas, take on greater responsibilities, and move out of my comfort zone. Making the career move to a startup has allowed more hands-on involvement in areas like finance, legal, marketing, and sales — areas where I was less involved in at Microsoft. This shift provides a continuous learning experience, expanding my skill set and fostering both personal and professional growth.”
Company Background
When asking Katz about the company’s background, history, and milestones, he shared:
“Sisense, founded in Israel in 2004, is a leading Analytics Platform as a Service that empowers users to build business analytics and accelerate product innovation by equipping product and development teams with a complete suite of no-, low-, and pro-code tools. Sisense integrates context-aware insights and analytics into data products in a modular, flexible, and scalable way. By delivering action-oriented insights, Sisense enhances decision intelligence and empowers every app builder to accelerate innovation and turn data into a competitive edge.”
“In 2010, Sisense raised $4 million in Series A funding to expand U.S. operations and launch our first commercially-available product. Amir Orad became CEO in 2015, leading the release of Sisense 6.0 to handle larger, more complex data. Two years later, Sisense 7.0 introduced machine learning and a fully browser-based platform. In 2019, Sisense doubled down on the cloud with a new Linux-based microservices architecture and acquired Periscope Data. By 2020, we rebranded, sharpened our focus on embedded analytics, raised $100 million, and hit a $1+ billion valuation. In 2021, the company launched Sisense Fusion, an AI-driven analytics platform, and unveiled Sisense Notebooks for advanced coding. In 2022, Sisense introduced Infusion Apps to simplify insights for non-technical users and added native Git version control to streamline developer workflows. And in 2023, I was promoted from Chief Product & Technology Officer to CEO.”
Core Features
What are the company’s core features? Katz explained:
“Sisense takes an API-first, platform-first approach for all app creators. It turns real-time insights into actions within the application, while seamlessly embedding analytics into any application. Users have full control to customize their workflows to make their own unique brand, while empowering creators at every skill level from no-code to pro-code.”
“AI is deeply integrated throughout the Sisense platform to democratize data access, automate complex tasks and streamline workflows – fostering a culture of data-driven decision making.”
“Built on a battle-proven 15Y data stack, Sisense’s architecture is designed for scalability, reliability and performance. The platform integrates seamlessly with leading technologies to ensure smooth deployment across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. This ensures the most demanding enterprise applications are supported with security and scalability at the core.”
Key Challenges
What are the key challenges of traditional BI? Katz acknowledged:
“Sisense has identified a major bottleneck for enterprises dealing with large amounts of data. Traditional BI is difficult for non-technical users to navigate; the static dashboards and siloed, periodic reports are no longer meeting the dynamic needs of modern organizations. Users are overwhelmed by the complexities of their own data, hindering the ability to make informed decisions.”
“Ideally, BI should be integrated into their existing workflows and most-used apps. Data warehousing and preparation for later analytics consumption is also a challenge, especially for smaller companies, and require scarce data-savvy professionals.”
AnPaaS As The Evolution Of BI
How is AnPaaS the evolution of BI, and how does AnPaaS allow users to gain deeper insights than if they used traditional BI software? Katz noted:
“Enterprises need a simple, streamlined and user-friendly solution to get fast and reliable insights from its business-critical data. That is where Analytics Platform as a Service (AnPaaS) comes into play.”
“To be clear, Sisense has not ‘invented’ this category – but it is a key player, identifying AnPaaS as the evolution of BI. Essentially, AnPaaS is BI with AI – making workflows more efficient by integrating analytics seamless into the applications already being used.”
“When Sisense was founded, AI was not dominating the technology space the way it is today. Sisense has analyzed emerging market trends and user demands to ensure it stays up-to-date with the true needs of its customers.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Katz highlighted:
“We’re proud to work with over 1,000 customers across various industries — from Air Canada to Skullcandy. Some notable customer success stories include:
Bigtincan, a global sales enablement platform that was becoming more of an ‘analytics shop’ instead of focusing on its core product. By integrating Sisense, Bigtincan’s business teams were empowered to handle customer reporting independently via self-service templates. This freed up two full-time engineers – giving the department the bandwidth to reassign engineers back to central product development. Bigtincan achieved a 215% ROI and 6.2-month payback period after integrating Sisense to enhance its analytics capabilities, and saw a 20% increase in revenue from top-tier customers due to enhanced data-driven sales engagements.
USA Swimming – the organization responsible for selecting swimmers for the U.S. Olympics team – manages over 400,000 members. They were struggling with the limitations of traditional BI tools before turning to Sisense. Since then, they have tripled their report loading speed, allowing them to get updates in one day that previously took several weeks. Swimming coaches can even analyze lap times on iPads from the poolside.
Funraise, a leading non-profit fundraising platform, faced challenges in delivering comprehensive data to its customer base. With Sisense, it was able to achieve over 7x more online annual fundraising, a 1.5x boost in recurring revenue, and a 12% increase in donor retention. By integrating an embedded analytics solution, Funraise’s engineering team no longer had to deal with time-wasting custom reporting. Sisense’s ‘Fundraising Intelligence’ has given non-profits instant, actionable insights that improve fundraising and efficiency across the board.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Katz affirmed:
“Sisense is an API-first analytics platform, meaning everything built on Sisense starts and ends with code and APIs. This modernizes businesses by seamlessly integrating in-context analytics within applications, leading to action-oriented insights that enhance decision intelligence.”
“Several factors make Sisense stand out, including the ability to:
Effortlessly connect data to Sisense without the hassle of replicating data or building new models. Sisense GenAI-powered integration makes the process more intelligent and faster, helping you save time and resources.
Create powerful visualizations with drag-and-drop tools, natural language queries, and dynamic visuals. Sisense GenAI enhances this process by simplifying complex queries and delivering real-time insights, helping users easily explore key metrics.
Customize and tailor your visualizations to match your application’s design seamlessly. With Sisense SDKs and APIs, you have complete control to ensure your data perfectly integrates into your app, delivering a cohesive, branded experience for users.
Embed anywhere – whether it’s directly into your app or offering analytics through white-labeled portals, Sisense ensures your data can be shared wherever users are through a robust and flexible set of APIs that developers love.”
Key Product Innovations
Key product innovations or big news in the pipeline for Sisense? Katz cited:
“Big news: Sisense has launched Sisense Intelligence — a major AI-powered framework that weaves GenAI seamlessly throughout the entire analytics platform. This significant rollout brings new supercharged features like an AI assistant for creators and end-users, and GenAI summaries for widgets, reinforcing Sisense’s leadership in AI-driven embedded analytics.”
“What’s new: As a leader in the Analytics Platform as a Service (AnPaaS) category, Sisense is setting a new bar. Sisense Intelligence is a comprehensive suite of AI-powered tools that empowers organizations to extract insights from their data. At its core is the assistant, an AI-first interface designed to simplify end-to-end analytics creation for all users. The assistant is complemented by a robust suite of GenAI capabilities that make analytics more accessible and actionable. Overall, Sisense Intelligence represents a fundamental innovation in how organizations leverage and extract insights from their data, make smarter business decisions, and drive more impactful outcomes.
Key Features and Benefits of Sisense Intelligence Assistant
An AI-first interface for end-to-end analytics creation, from data acquisition to data modeling, insights generation and embedding. The assistant reduces setup time and allows non-data experts without specialized knowledge to create sophisticated analytics experiences, so both technical and business users can add analytics to their applications easily. The assistant with the new natural conversational interface lets creators and end-users generate insights and visualizations, with improved chat accuracy, dashboard-specific queries, and creator controls that enable real-time “dialogs” with data.
GenAI Suite of Capabilities: In addition to the assistant, Sisense Intelligence includes a comprehensive suite of capabilities designed to simplify complex analysis and empower everyday users, such as:
narrative: Instantly generates natural-language summaries on dashboard widgets, simplifying interpretation and improving data literacy across all user levels.
explanation: Identifies the most probable key drivers behind data changes, helping users understand not just what happened but why an event happened, leading to deeper, more informed decision-making.
forecast: Predicts future trends using auto-Machine Learning for every unique dataset, without the need for data science expertise, equipping users to confidently anticipate trends.
trend: Automatically detects meaningful patterns and outliers in data, cutting through the noise and better analyzing their information to spotlight emerging risks and opportunities.
Compose SDK GenAI Embedded Components: Developers can embed AI-driven analytics directly into their applications using React, Angular, and Vue.js. This API-first approach ensures that analytics are easily embedded in a developer-friendly manner, providing a better experience than traditional embedding methods (such as iFrames) and a smoother experience for end-users.”
Future Goals
What goals or vision do you have for the future of Sisense? Katz emphasized:
“We aim to build a world where analytics fuels the applications that drive business forward and further democratize data analytics, making it an integral part of every business application. Sisense will continue to innovate in AI and machine learning, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in automated insights and predictive analytics. We also see a big opportunity in expanding our developer ecosystem, providing tools and resources that make it even easier to build data-rich applications.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Katz reflected:
“What excites me most about our work is that it’s not just about making money—it’s about truly making a positive impact in the world. Let me share a small but incredibly meaningful example that I’m especially proud of.”
“One of our clients is a crisis intervention organization focused on suicide prevention, particularly at the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States. On the bridge, at the first pillar, there is a sign inviting individuals with suicidal thoughts to call a 1-800 number for help. When people call, they are connected to trained responders ready to provide support.”
“The innovative part of this service is the use of machine learning to enhance the quality of support provided. Instead of relying solely on intuition and human judgment, the system leverages data technology to offer personalized guidance to responders. These recommendations are based on various factors such as historical case data, weather conditions, and other relevant contextual elements. This approach has significantly improved the ability to provide effective support and has even saved many lives.”
“This example illustrates how data technology can be combined with compassion and humanity to address one of society’s most complex challenges. It showcases the power of Sisense—not just as a business tool, but as a platform for real change.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Katz concluded:
“As a first time CEO – here are some challenges I have faced and the lessons they have taught me:
The loneliness of leadership: Being at the helm means ultimate responsibility and accountability. Combatting isolation requires building a trusted advisory network, fostering a cohesive executive leadership team (ELT), and integrating personal support systems like family and board members for balance and guidance.
The shift from specialist to generalist: Transitioning from product executive to CEO demands mastering new domains like finance, sales, and marketing. Success hinges on aligning diverse functions with a shared strategy and language to foster collaboration across the organization and steer it toward growth.
Operational excellence as a game-changer: Operational efficiency is the silent force behind sustained success. Moving from a large corporation to a leaner startup mindset reveals that every process must be optimized, requiring the involvement of every department—from finance to sales—to drive continuous improvement and innovation.”
