Get Started With Tableau Agent for Tableau Prep

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Describe data-cleaning tasks in natural language using Tableau Agent.
  
• Apply the suggested steps for data transformations in Tableau Prep.
  
• Identify the requirements to get access to Tableau Agent for Tableau Prep.
  

Tableau Agent: Your Data Prep Companion

If you ever feel overwhelmed by messy piles of data with inconsistent date formats and jumbled names, you’re going to love Tableau Agent in Tableau Prep. Like a super-smart friend who understands your needs, Tableau Agent turns tough data cleaning tasks into an easy, hassle-free process.

Flow-Building Made Easy

Say goodbye to clicking through a million menus and options to complete a flow cleaning task. You can tell Tableau Agent what you want and get the results you need. Imagine you’ve got a column crammed with flight information like UA234-05/15/2025-First-350. Instead of manually splitting the column, you can simply type something like, “Split the flight details into flight number, date, class, and price.” It's that simple. Tableau Agent responds to your directions and figures out the steps needed to make it happen.

You’re in the Driver’s Seat

After you tell Tableau Agent what you want, you receive a quick rundown of what it plans to do. Think of it as a sneak peek. It might say, “OK, I’ll create four new columns, split the text using those dashes, and then rename them.” You get to review this plan before Tableau Agent does anything and instruct, “Yep, looks good!” or “Hmm, maybe tweak that date a bit.” You’re in control and can make sure you’re getting what you need from the agent.

Happy with the plan? You can either press Apply All and watch Tableau Agent work its magic on everything all at once. Or if you’re the cautious type (nothing wrong with that!), you can apply each step one by one. This way, you can see exactly what’s happening at each stage. You have complete control over cleaning your data. A visual cue (green check mark) even tells you when each step in the plan was applied successfully.

Maybe Tableau Agent’s suggestion wasn't exactly what you had in mind, and you want it to show you something different. That’s no problem! You can easily undo a step or go back and tweak things manually by editing your change in the Changes pane. Nothing is permanent. You can play around until your data looks just right. It's all about trial and error without the stress.

Tableau Agent isn’t just for the simple stuff. It can also handle more complex tasks that can sometimes take a bunch of steps. Got a whole bunch of messy issues in one data set? Tell Tableau Agent, and it can come up with a multistep plan to tackle it. It’s like having your own personal cleaning crew, ready for your instructions and happy to work at it until you’re satisfied.

Data Privacy: We’ve Got You Covered

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait, is my data safe?" Absolutely! Data privacy is a top priority, and Tableau Agent is designed with this in mind. The Einstein Trust Layer ensures that personally identifying information (PII) is masked before it’s sent to the large language model (LLM). PII is replaced with generic tokens, and the original values are unmasked in the response. After processing, the LLM forgets the request and response, ensuring that no customer data is saved or used to train the model.

What You Need to Get Rolling

Here’s what you need to get started.

• Tableau+
  
• A connection to a Salesforce org with Einstein generative AI set up
  
• An instance of a Tableau Cloud site with Tableau+ and Tableau Agent for Tableau Prep turned on that you can sign into.
  
• Tableau Cloud version 2025.2 or later
  

Don’t have access to a Tableau Cloud site with Tableau+? No problem. You can try Tabeau Agent with a free trial of Tableau Cloud. Start your free Tableau Cloud trial today!

Ready to see Tableau Agent shine? In this unit, you met your new data prep sidekick. Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and explore what this amazing tool can do.

Resources

• Tableau Help: Build Tableau Prep flows with Tableau Agent
• Tableau Help: Turn on AI in Your Tableau Cloud Site

Quiz Scenario

Mei, a data analyst, is working with a large dataset in Tableau Prep that contains sales information for a global company. The data is messy, with inconsistent date formats and combined customer details in single columns. Mei wants to use Tableau Agent to efficiently clean and transform this data for her analysis.