Qlik is reshaping Conversational BI with two major capabilities: Qlik Answers and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. Together, they enable a new agentic, AI driven experience where users can ask complex questions in natural language and receive governed, explainable answers sourced directly from Qlik’s analytics engine and trusted data products.
1. Qlik Answers — Your Unified Conversational Interface
Qlik Answers brings structured analytics, unstructured documents, and the reasoning capabilities of large language models into a single, governed conversational experience. It can interpret multi-step questions, blend numerical insights with contextual knowledge, and provide transparent responses supported by citations and engine-backed calculations.
It also operates as an always-on side panel in Qlik Cloud, aware of your workflow and ready to assist with explanations, charts, or document context the moment you need it.
2. MCP — Opening Qlik to Third-Party Assistants
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) extends Qlik beyond its own interface. MCP exposes Qlik’s analytics engine, tools, and specialized agents so that external assistants can securely tap into Qlik’s capabilities. This means you can build tailored conversational experiences that run inside other platforms while still relying on Qlik’s governed calculations and trusted data products.
General availability for the MCP server is planned for early 2026, making it a strategic option for organizations looking to integrate conversational BI across different entry points and applications.
3. Conversational BI with Qlik – Workshop Series
The element61 Conversational BI with Qlik workshop series is designed to help your team identify, scope, and build your first production use case with Qlik Answers and Qlik MCP. The series runs as three progressive offerings, each one delivering a concrete output and feeding naturally into the next.
3.1 The Three Offerings
The workshop series is structured as three progressive offerings, each delivering a concrete output at every stage. A natural path is to start with Offering 1 and work your way through, but that is not a requirement. If you already have a clear use case in mind, you can enter directly at Offering 2 or 3. Each offering is self-contained enough to stand on its own. The table below gives an overview of the three offerings and helps you identify the right starting point for your situation.
| Offering 1 First Conversation |
Offering 2 Use Case to Blueprint |
Offering 3 Blueprint to Prototype |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| DURATION | ½ day | 1 day | 2 days |
| BEST SUITED FOR | Organisations curious about Conversational BI but not yet sure where to start. Decision-makers and business sponsors who want to explore relevance and leave with a concrete direction — no technical preparation or hands-on work required. | Organisations with an identified use case, a BI developer or data modeler in the room, and a realistic Qlik app already in their environment. | Organisations committed to a first production deployment, with a technically capable team, full Qlik tenant access (Answers and/or MCP enabled), and a clear use case already defined. |
| KEY OUTPUT | One-page use case brief with open questions and a defined next step. | A fully scoped blueprint: App Readiness Checklist, Assistant Design Brief, Governance Decision Log. | Everything from Offering 2, plus a working Qlik Answers assistant and/or live MCP connection tested against real data. |
| NATURAL FOLLOW-ON | Offering 2 — Use Case to Blueprint | Offering 3 — Blueprint to Prototype | Production deployment |
3.2 Workshop Modules
Our Conversational BI workshops are built from eight modular building blocks — each one addressing a distinct step in the journey from idea to production-ready assistant. Depending on where you are on that journey, we combine these modules into one of three workshop offerings: a focused first conversation, a full-day blueprint session, or a two-day build sprint. The overview below shows which modules are included in each offering and at what depth.
| # | Module | Offering 1 First Conversation |
Offering 2 Use Case to Blueprint |
Offering 3 Blueprint to Prototype |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W0 | Pre-workshop intake | ● Light | ● Full | ● Full |
| W1 | Use case discovery | ● Full | ● Partial | ● Partial |
| W2 | App readiness assessment | — | ● Full | ● Full |
| W3 | Assistant & KB design | ● Light | ● Full | ● Full |
| W4 | Governance & cost guardrails | ● Light | ● Full | ● Full |
| W5 | Qlik MCP scoping | — | ● Optional | ● Full |
| W6 | Build sprint / PoC | — | — | ● Full |
| W7 | Next steps & roadmap | ● Full | ● Full | ● Full |
● Full — included at full depth ● Light / Partial / Optional — included in reduced form — Not included
- W0 · Pre-workshop intake Before the session begins, we align on the context needed to make the day focused and relevant. For new customers this typically means a short intake conversation; for existing customers we draw on what we already know and top up where needed. We walk away with a shared shortlist of 2–4 candidate apps or use cases that anchors the workshop from the first minute.
- W1 · Use case discovery & prioritization Not every idea for a conversational BI assistant is equally ready to build. This module surfaces candidate use cases from the room, qualifies them against practical criteria and selects one to carry forward. You leave with a scored shortlist and a clear rationale for the chosen candidate.
- W2 · Application readiness assessment Qlik Answers can only be as good as the app it reads. This module walks through your candidate Qlik app(s) against Qlik's published best practices: field naming conventions, data model hygiene, master item completeness, and business logic definitions. The output is a filled App Readiness Checklist with a concrete remediation backlog — the practical to-do list your BI developer needs before the assistant can be trusted.
- W3 · Assistant & knowledge base design This is where the use case becomes a design. We define the scope of the knowledge base, where it lives in your Qlik tenant, who can access it, what the assistant's welcome message says, and what conversation starters will guide business users toward good questions. The output is a one-page Assistant Design Brief — specific enough to hand directly to the person doing the build.
- W4 · Governance, access & cost guardrails Every deployment of Qlik Answers needs clear answers to a short list of non-negotiable questions: who owns this assistant, which space does it live in, who can see which knowledge bases, how often is content refreshed, and what cost or quota limits apply. This module is never skipped. The output is a Governance Decision Log that captures all of these decisions in one place, with named owners and a review cadence.
- W5 · Qlik MCP technical scoping (conditional — included when the use case involves agentic workflows) When your use case goes beyond question-answering into agentic territory — automated workflows, multi-step reasoning, or direct integration with external systems — this module scopes the technical side of the Qlik MCP connection. We define which tools to expose, what data access model applies, and which agent framework fits the context.
- W6 · Build sprint / PoC (Offering 3 only) With the design complete and governance finalized, this hands-on sprint produces a working prototype: a Qlik Answers knowledge base created, an assistant configured and tested, and – where applicable – a live MCP connection established. All of this runs against your real data in your actual Qlik tenant. You leave with a validated prototype, a set of test questions with observed answers, and a clear delta list of what still needs to happen before production go-live.
- W7 · Next steps & roadmap Every workshop closes the same way: confirm the use case decision, assign owners for every open item, and agree on a realistic path to production. This module is always run at full depth, regardless of which offering you choose. The output is a Workshop Summary document with owner assignments and a target go-live milestone, so the momentum from the day carries forward.