Cortex Analyst
What is Cortex Analyst?
Cortex Analyst is Snowflake’s conversational analytics layer inside the Snowflake Cortex suite.
Teams use Cortex Analyst to ask questions about data in natural language and receive structured, governed answers directly from Snowflake, without exporting data or building custom semantic layers outside the warehouse.
The tool targets analytics, BI, and data teams that want business users querying trusted data without opening SQL editors or creating one-off dashboards.
Where Cortex Analyst fits in the Snowflake stack
Cortex Analyst sits on top of Snowflake data, security, and governance.
It connects natural language input to Snowflake-managed semantic models and returns answers as SQL-backed results, not free-text guesses.
That placement matters because queries still respect Snowflake roles, row-level security, masking policies, and data sharing rules.
No separate analytics engine runs in parallel. Everything executes inside Snowflake.
How Cortex Analyst works
Cortex Analyst follows a structured flow:
- Natural language input
A user asks a question in plain language, such as revenue by region last quarter. - Semantic interpretation
Cortex Analyst maps words to governed tables, metrics, and dimensions defined inside Snowflake. - SQL generation
The system generates SQL tied to approved objects, not raw table discovery. - Query execution
Snowflake runs the query using existing warehouses and policies. - Answer delivery
Results return as structured data, charts, or tabular outputs depending on the interface.
And because Snowflake executes the query, costs, performance, and lineage stay visible.
What Cortex Analyst is good at
Cortex Analyst shines in scenarios where teams want control and trust.
Common use cases include:
- Business users asking ad hoc questions without SQL access
- Analysts validating metrics without building dashboards
- Data teams reducing one-off query requests
- Organizations enforcing a single definition of KPIs
The tool works best when semantic definitions already exist and teams care about governance.
What Cortex Analyst does not solve
Cortex Analyst does not remove data modeling work.
Teams still need to define metrics, relationships, and business logic ahead of time.
The tool also does not replace BI platforms for complex visual exploration, drilldowns, or custom reporting workflows.
And free-form exploration across unknown tables stays limited compared to open-ended LLM chat tools.
Cost and performance considerations
Every Cortex Analyst question triggers a Snowflake query.
That means:
- Warehouse usage drives cost
- Poorly scoped questions can trigger heavy scans
- Frequent usage without monitoring can inflate spend
Without query attribution and usage visibility, teams struggle to connect Cortex Analyst activity to actual cost drivers.
Governance and trust model
Cortex Analyst enforces Snowflake-native governance.
Queries respect:
- Role-based access control
- Row-level and column-level security
- Data sharing boundaries
- Masking policies
That design reduces risk compared to external AI tools pulling copies of data into separate systems.
Cortex Analyst vs traditional BI tools
| Area | Cortex Analyst | Traditional BI |
|---|---|---|
| Query interface | Natural language | Dashboards and SQL |
| Governance | Snowflake-native | Tool-managed |
| Flexibility | Question-based | Visualization-based |
| Cost model | Query-driven | License-driven |
| Setup effort | Semantic modeling required | Modeling plus dashboard build |
Many teams run both, using Cortex Analyst for quick questions and BI for recurring reporting.
Operational risks teams overlook
Several risks surface quickly in production:
- Analysts ask broad questions that scan large tables
- Multiple users repeat similar queries without caching
- Teams lose track of which questions drive spend
- Business users assume answers reflect real-time freshness
Without observability, Cortex Analyst usage becomes opaque fast.
How SeemoreData complements Cortex Analyst
Cortex Analyst answers questions.
SeemoreData explains what those answers cost, where they came from, and who triggered them.
With SeemoreData, teams can:
- Attribute Cortex Analyst queries to users and teams
- Track warehouse spend tied to conversational analytics
- Detect repetitive or wasteful questions
- Connect answers back to upstream pipelines and tables
That visibility helps teams scale Cortex Analyst without losing financial or operational control.
When Cortex Analyst makes sense
Cortex Analyst fits best when:
- Snowflake already acts as the system of record
- Metrics definitions stay centralized
- Governance matters more than experimentation
- Business teams want fast answers without SQL
For teams chasing free-form exploration or ungoverned discovery, the tool may feel restrictive.
Bottom line
Cortex Analyst brings natural language analytics into Snowflake without breaking governance or security.
But every question still costs money, consumes compute, and depends on upstream data quality.
Teams that pair Cortex Analyst with cost attribution, lineage, and usage intelligence avoid surprises and keep trust intact as adoption grows.
