Build an assists forecasting dashboard

[Victor Chen]

Use Platform analytics to build a forecasting dashboard that can help estimate and manage your assists consumption, see the example screenshot below and the steps on how to build this for your instance. 

Part 1 — Create the Indicator Source

The indicator source defines the dataset: the sys_gen_ai_usage_log table contains the assists consumed per Now Assist execution. 

1. Navigate to All > Platform Analytics Administration > Data Sources > Indicator Sources and select New.
2. In the Name field, enter something descriptive like Cumulative assists source.
3. Add a Description, e.g., Daily records from the Gen AI Usage Log table for assists consumption tracking.
4. In the Calendars field, leave it set to the Standard calendar.
5. In the Valid for frequency field, select Daily.
6. In the Facts table field, select sys_gen_ai_usage_log (the Gen AI Usage Log table).
7. Under Conditions, add:
   • [Created] [at or before] [Today]
   • AND
   • [Created] [at or after] [accumulation start date]
     This ensures the data collector fetches records created today and prior for historical record. And depending on your entitlement start date or your choice of accumulation start date, this is when assists cumulative sum will start at "0" and begin accumulating. Assists usage resets annually based on a customer's contract anniversary date, so the accumulation start date may have to be manually reset every year. 
8. On the top bar, right-click and Save.

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Part 2.1 — Create the Automated Indicator

The indicator will aggregate the count of assists from the indicator source.

1. Navigate to All > Platform Analytics Administration > Indicators > Automated Indicators and select New.
2. In the Name field, enter something like Cumulative Assists.
3. Add a Description, e.g., Sums total assists consumed from the Gen AI Usage Log.
4. Under Indicator properties, set Direction to Maximize (more assists consumed over time is directionally increasing).
5. Set Unit to Number (#).
6. Click the Source tab and select your indicator source from Part 1 (Cumulative assists source).
7. In the Aggregate field, select Sum 
8. In Field field, select Assists
9. Check Collect records so you can drill down from the chart later if needed.
10. Expand the context menu and click Save.
11. Then in the Jobs related list, associate the appropriate data collection jobs, be sure the jobs are set to Active = true:

• A Historic job (run once to backfill past data)
• A Daily scheduled job (run daily going forward, collecting the previous day's data)

Execute the historic job immediately to populate the chart with past data.

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Part 2.2 — Configure Forecasting and Threshold on the Indicator

On the indicator record, forecast configuration lives in the Forecasting tab and controls how the dotted forecast line behaves.

1. Open the Cumulative Assists indicator you just created.
2. Click the Forecasting tab.
3. Set the following fields:

   Field	Recommended Value
   Forecast method used	Auto (lets the system pick the best statistical fit for your data; you can override with Linear, Exponential Smoothing, or Holt-Winters if you have a known pattern)
   Periods to forecast	Forecasts ## periods into the future (for daily frequency, each period is 1 week); adjust to your planning horizon.
   Forecast lower limit	0 (assists count can't go below zero)
   Forecast upper limit	(Leave blank unless you have a known ceiling)

4. Under Forecast based on, choose All scores to use your entire history to build the forecast. Or you can select Previous periods to base the forecast only on the last X periods of data. This is useful if older data pre-dates a product launch and would skew the projection
5. Right-click the top bar to Save (or click Update) on the indicator record.

In the Related Links section, click on the Thresholds tab. 

1. Click New
2. In the Condition section, select Condition as More than and a Value you want to set as a Maximum.
3. Right-click and Save the thresholds record. The "Users" list will then appear. Add users you want to be notified when the threshold is reached.

Note: Threshold notification only triggers on actual data crossing the threshold, not the forecast. 

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Part 3 — Create the Dashboard with a Forecast Line Chart and Document Filter

 

1. Navigate to All > Platform Analytics > Library > Dashboards.
2. Select Create new dashboard.
3. Give it a name (e.g., Assists Consumption Forecast) and save.
4. The dashboard opens in edit mode automatically.
5. In the dashboard editor, select Add new element. Select Data Visualization > New data visualization.
6. In the Visualization Designer, select Visualization type as "Line". 
7. Select Add data source and choose Indicator = Cumulative Assists indicator. 
8. In the Metric section:
   • Label: Cumulative Assists
   • Time aggregation: match indicator frequency: Daily
9. Under Date range:
   
   • Set a absolute period that covers your historical data + days in the future
   • Optional: Toggle Allow change date range on so users can adjust the window
10. Under Additional settings:
    • Toggle Show forecast to ON. This displays the dotted forecast line. You can also configure the forecast again here.
    • Toggle Show forecast range to ON to also display the 95% confidence interval shading.
    • Click Configure forecast if you want to override the forecast settings set on the indicator specifically for this visualization (e.g., change the number of periods to display in the forecast line).
    • Toggle Show threshold to ON. Now you can approximate when your forecast will hit your threshold. 
11. Under Presentation, Configure the axes:
    • Y axis / Primary axis title: Cumulative Assists. You may want to set a max axis range.
    • X axis title: Date
12. Click Save on the top.