If your reports are taking longer than expected or returning content you didn't ask for, the fix is usually in how you phrase your prompt. Reports aren't just for chat - use them as agent output too especially with agents like the BI and Ops Agent.
When you build a custom agent, you don't have to limit it to conversational responses. You can configure an agent to output a structured Report instead. This is useful when you want an agent to produce a consistent, formatted deliverable - a briefing, a summary, an analysis - rather than a back-and-forth chat response.
Why this matters: agents configured with a report output give end users a polished, repeatable artefact every time they run it, with no extra prompting required.
Why reports can be slow or off-target
When your prompt is vague, the AI fills in the gaps with its own suggestions. This means:
- More tokens are consumed
- The response takes longer to generate
- You may get charts, data, or sections you didn't ask for
Make sure you tell the AI exactly what you want - and explicitly say you don't want anything else.
Examples of what to specify:
- Which data points or metrics to include
- Which chart types to use
- Which data frame or time range to apply
Two-stage approach for building a new report
Stage 1 - Explore and refine
1. Start with a loose prompt and review what comes back
2. Iterate on the output
3. Once you're happy, rewrite the prompt to be specific — and add a line like "do not
Stage 2 - Advanced optimisation (once you're satisfied with Stage 1)
1. Review the AI's thinking process
2. Look for places where it reasoned about things that are already obvious or generic
3. If you spot repeated generic reasoning, consider adding a hint in your system prompt to skip it
4. If it looks like a systemic issue, flag it to the engineering team
Coming soon: scheduling and email delivery
We're adding scheduling to reports, so you'll be able to run a report automatically on a recurring basis — daily, weekly, or on a custom cadence. Email will also be supported as an output channel, meaning reports can be delivered directly to inboxes without anyone needing to log in and trigger them manually. More details to follow.