Software makers these days are all about providing tools that can help ordinary business workers make more sense of their company’s data and the insights this can generate. Tableau Software Inc., one of the leading data analytics firms around, is no different in this regard, so it’s adding a new feature called Ask Data that allows users to query their data in their natural voice.

Ask Data is the most prominent new feature in the Tableau 19.1 beta release, which the company is launching today at its annual Tableau Conference in New Orleans. Leveraging Tableau’s latest natural language processing capabilities, Ask Data provides an easy way for anyone to ask questions of their data.

Using plain language, it’s now possible to ask simple or complex questions such as “How many sales did I make this month?” and have them answered immediately in the form of an interactive visualization. The feature, available in both Tableau Server and Tableau Online, also ensures companies stay in compliance by respecting existing permissions and security policies when considering which data to access.

“Our customers want to enable more people than ever to use analytics within their organizations, and they are looking for more intuitive and natural ways to interact with data.” said Francois Ajenstat, Tableau’s chief product officer. “Ask Data, our new integrated natural language capability, lowers the barrier to entry for analytics so people can ask questions in plain language and get insights faster.”

Natural language processing is nothing new, of course, which might make some wonder if such a feature is a little overdue from a company like Tableau. But Doug Henschen, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research Inc., said that’s not really so. Although natural language query technology has been available for some time from companies such as Microsoft Corp. and SAP SE, these early implementations are somewhat crude because they use search technology to extract and match keywords to database column headers.

“Last year Tableau acquired ClearGraph to accelerate research into the natural language query tech it already had underway,” Henschen said. “The proof will be in the capabilities Tableau delivers with the Ask functionality, but the promise is subtle understanding of query intent and the ability to tie queries to data even when search concepts don’t explicitly map to database headers.”

While Ask Data is designed to get more people using Tableau’s platform, information technology teams still need to be able to prepare the data for those users in the first place. To help with this, Tableau is introducing a new Tableau Prep Conductor tool that enables data preparation at scale. It does so by centralizing the administration, scheduling and monitoring of data prep flows in a what’s billed as a reliable and scalable environment. It’s being made available as an add-on with a separate license.

The new beta release also sees Tableau gain better data modeling capabilities that make the analysis of complex data easier. Tableau can now automatically recognize relationships between data stored in databases such as Oracle and SQL Server, something that previously required the ability to write custom SQL code.

In addition, Tableau is ramping up its efforts to solve a number of key “global challenges” via its Tableau Foundation. The philanthropic organization, led by Tableau employees, works with nonprofits to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems using a combination of facts, analytical reasoning and financial support. For example, in 2014 it began partnering with the Zambian government on the Visualize No Malaria initiative, helping it to achieve a 90 percent reduction malaria-related deaths in its southern province.

At today’s event, the foundation announced it will donate $100 million worth of grants in software, training and financial support through 2025 in order to tackle additional problems such as preventing disease, delivering clean water to kids in developing countries and reducing homelessness among veterans in the U.S.

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