Zoho has updated its business intelligence platform with agentic artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, enabling AI agents to interpret business data, deliver context-aware insights and trigger workflows.
The company announced the changes to Zoho Analytics on 28 October 2026, with cloud updates available immediately.
The update is positioned as a step beyond traditional reporting. According to Zoho, the platform now provides a shared intelligence layer that connects data, organisational context and business operations, allowing AI agents to function with more than raw numbers.
For South African businesses already stretched across multiple data sources and applications, the pitch is consolidation: one place where AI agents understand your business well enough to actually be useful.
A semantic layer your AI agents can actually use
The core of the update is a semantic layer and an ontology layer built into Zoho Analytics. The semantic layer works as a business glossary, standardising definitions, terminology, synonyms and metrics so AI agents work from consistent, agreed-upon language.
The ontology layer maps business entities and the relationships between them, giving agents a structured picture of how an organisation fits together.
According to Zoho, these layers are built into the platform, meaning businesses do not need a separate data platform or cloud data warehouse to establish and manage their models.
Andrew Bourne, Regional Head of Zoho South Africa, said the company was “at the beginning of the next leap forward in data analytics, where a strong data foundation is the starting point for all agentic activity in business operations.” Bourne added that agents “cannot function only with data, but require a robust intelligence layer.”
Ask Zia gets a multi-agent architecture
At the centre of the update is Ask Zia, Zoho’s conversational business intelligence super-agent, which now runs on a multi-agent architecture. The system coordinates specialised agents across data analysis, visualisation, data preparation, modelling, coding and actions, all through a single interface.
Ask Zia uses conversation history and agent memory to maintain continuity as tasks evolve. Businesses can build custom agents grounded in their own data, business models and knowledge bases, with connectivity to external tools and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.
The platform also introduces a workflow builder and contextual action triggers, allowing organisations to connect insights directly to business processes. Ask Zia is now available on mobile with an upgraded interface.
More than 30 new connectors added
Zoho Analytics is adding more than 30 data connectors to its existing library of more than 500. New integrations include Zoho ERP, Zoho Spend, Zoho FSM, Zoho Shifts and Zoho Voice, alongside third-party platforms including SAP, PayPal, Adobe Commerce, Twilio, Notion, Intercom, Supabase, Amazon DocumentDB and AlloyDB.
Developers and AI agents can also access Zoho Analytics through an MCP server, a command-line interface, or directly within Claude via a Claude plug-in.
Businesses can embed AI agents into their own applications, portals and products through white-label capabilities, with permissions and governance controls in place.
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Governance tools for administrators
Zoho Analytics includes AI observability tools that allow administrators to see which agents have run, who used them, what information they accessed and how they responded to queries. AI usage and costs can be monitored across teams, and Ask Zia’s behaviour is configurable through administrative settings.
A data catalogue supports data lineage, impact analysis, search and access policy management.
Sandbox and deployment management capabilities allow teams to test analytics assets before pushing them to production, with version restoration available.
Pricing and availability
Despite the scope of the update, Zoho says pricing for Zoho Analytics remains unchanged. Zoho LLM credits are now included in each plan. A Basic plan starts at R336 per month, billed annually, covering two users, 0.5 million rows and 10 000 Zoho LLM credits.
Cloud updates are available now. Preview versions of pixel-perfect reporting, ontology and the semantic model will roll out globally over the next four to eight weeks. On-premises updates are expected in Q1 2027.
Zoho Analytics is used by 100 000 businesses worldwide daily and runs on Zoho Cloud, on-premises infrastructure, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and hybrid deployments.
