Data Assistant
The AI Analytics Dashboard shows leaders what AI costs and who is using it. The Data Assistant lets them ask it questions. It knows which tab they’re on, it knows how MillerKnoll is organized, and it answers from the dashboard’s own numbers, fast enough to use in the middle of a meeting.
What it delivers
A measured reason to take a different path.
The first version ran as a Power Automate flow, and every answer took 47 to 150 seconds. After every flow-side fix the floor stayed where it was, because each flow action carries its own scheduling overhead. So the hot path moved into an Azure Function: the Claude call, the tool loop, and the data reads, streamed straight to the panel. Power Automate still owns the usage ledger. This was AISE’s first Azure Function, built together with Cory Whipple in Enterprise Apps, who set up the Function App and then linked it behind the dashboard’s sign-in so the assistant needs no key at all. The lessons from it became the team’s standard for when a Function earns its place.
The principles
Answer from the page
Most questions are about what’s on screen. The assistant gets a snapshot of the current tab and the data the page has already loaded, so most answers need no tool call at all, and “this number” means the number you’re looking at.
Never invent a number
Every figure comes from the page, the loaded data, or a tool. Forward-looking questions use the dashboard’s own projection, named as such. The assistant never produces a forecast of its own.
Rooted in the org
It knows the budget owners, the Technology Leadership Team, and the fiscal year, and it follows the reporting rules the dashboard follows. For example, M365 Copilot is never attributed to a budget owner.
Where it stands
The Data Assistant went live on September 24, 2026, on the AI Analytics Dashboard, which launched September 18. It runs as an Azure Function on Claude Sonnet 5, built with Cory Whipple in Enterprise Apps. He provisioned the Function App with its Key Vault access and monitoring, then linked it as the dashboard’s own backend. The assistant can only be reached through the dashboard’s MillerKnoll sign-in, so there is no shared key to protect or rotate. The widget is labelled Beta while usage builds.