Ask Halo about your data
Open the Halo AI panel, ask in plain English, and get answers with live charts and tables you can check and follow up on.
Ask a question about your data the way you'd ask an analyst. Halo AI finds the right dataset, runs read-only queries as you, and answers with words, live charts and tables.
Open the Halo AI panel
Press Ask Halo in the top bar, or ⌘J. It opens beside the page, or as a drawer on a phone. The same shortcut closes it. An answer keeps writing while you move between pages.
If the button isn't there, your role, your organization's settings or your plan don't include Halo AI. Ask an Admin, or see Who can use it.
Ask a question
Write in the box that says "Ask about your data" and send it. You can also ask how to do something in Halo: Halo AI looks it up in these guides and links the one it used. In Halo Data the link opens in the help panel, and Back returns to the answer.
A new conversation offers starting points that suit the page you're on:
| On | It offers |
|---|---|
| A report | Summarize this report, What stands out?, and Suggest improvements while you're editing it |
| A chart | Explain this chart, Break it down, Compare with last year |
| A dataset | What's in this dataset?, Show the trend, Top values |
You can ask how you're doing against a goal, and what changed lately: Halo AI reads your goals and the changes Halo flagged, with your row policies.
Specific questions get better answers. "How did revenue change by region last quarter, compared with the quarter before?" gives Halo AI what it needs: a measure, a dimension and a period. Halo AI uses your organization's calendar, so "this quarter" follows your fiscal year.
The page you're on
On a report, chart or dataset, the box shows a chip such as "Report: Monthly sales". Halo AI can read that item, so "what stands out here?" works. Press the chip's × to leave the page out.
Other ways to start from where you are:
Explain on a chart's page. It includes any changes you haven't saved.
Summarize on a report's page.
Ask Halo on a dataset's page.
Select text, right-click, and pick Ask Halo about this.
If you were given a report or chart but can't open its dataset, Halo AI reads what that report or chart reads, with your row policies, and gives you the same numbers the page does. It can't read anything else in that dataset, and you can't save what it shows, since the dataset isn't yours to build on. Ask from the report or chart's own page, since that's what it reads through.
Read the answer
An answer can hold text, charts, tables, a row of key numbers and follow-up questions.
Halo AI shows its evidence first and writes its answer last. While it works you'll see its steps, such as "Looked through datasets" and "Read the fields of Orders", which then fold into a short trail you can open. A chart runs its own query as you, so the words and the drawing come from the same numbers.
The kind of chart an answer holds. Those in answers are live too: hover for values, or switch to the rows.
On a chart in an answer you can:
Show the rows to read it as a table.
Open in the chart editor to keep working on it.
Save to charts to keep it. This needs a role that can create content.
Click a mark to ask about it. Halo AI waits until you press Ask about North, so reading a tooltip never spends credits.
Follow-up buttons ask exactly what they say. Mark an answer Helpful or Not helpful to tell Halo how it did.
Choose a mode
The picker in the box sets which model answers. Auto suits most questions. Use Fast for simple lookups and Standard for deeper analysis. Deep is for hard questions, uses the most credits, and shows only if an Admin allowed it. You can change the mode for each question. Halo AI has the details.
Stop an answer
Press Stop while Halo AI is writing. What it wrote so far stays, marked "Stopped". Stopping early doesn't make an answer free: you pay for the work done so far.
A conversation answers one question at a time, and you can have two answers writing at once across your conversations.
Keep and find conversations
Conversations are private to you. They aren't shared with other members, and they aren't shown to Admins.
New conversation: the plus at the top of the panel.
Conversations: the history button lists your past conversations. Open one to carry on.
Pin this conversation keeps it near the top.
Delete this conversation takes it out of your list at once, and Halo removes it for good after 30 days.
When a conversation can't continue
Halo AI's answers build on everything it read earlier in a conversation, so Halo stops a conversation when that would show you something you can no longer see:
"This conversation used data you can no longer open." You've lost access to a dataset, chart or report it read, or a report or chart you were given now reads something else.
"Which rows you can see in data this conversation used has changed." A row policy, or your role, groups or attributes it depends on, changed.
Start a new conversation. The old one stays readable in your list.
A conversation also ends after 60 questions, since every answer resends what came before: "This conversation is long. Ask in a new one to keep answers quick." Ask in a new conversation asks the same question there.
If Halo AI can't answer
The panel takes the place of the box and says why:
| It says | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Out of AI credits for now | The organization's credits, or your own cap, have run out | An Admin can raise your cap; otherwise wait for the month or day to turn |
| Halo AI needs your organization's key | Your organization pays with its own key, and there isn't one | An Admin adds it in Settings, Halo AI |
| Halo AI is paused | The panel says which: Halo paused it for now, Halo paused it for your organization, or an Admin paused it for you | Try again later, Contact Halo, or ask an Admin |
If an Admin switched off Ask Halo but left other features on, buttons such as Explain and Summarize still open the panel, and it says that asking in your own words is off.
The panel's footer shows how close you are to the tightest limit, such as "12% of credits". Hover it for the numbers. See AI credits and limits.