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Techday NZ
3 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
SAS Viya unveils new AI tools & services to boost productivity
SAS has announced a series of updates and new features on its SAS Viya platform, aimed at enhancing AI-driven productivity and supporting a wider range of users and organisations. Platform updates The SAS Viya platform now provides users with the ability to either build AI through a suite of end-to-end tools or purchase AI solutions and model packages, offering increased flexibility and productivity for decision-making across industries. Kathy Lange, Research Director for AI Software at IDC, commented, "SAS is evolving its strategy and portfolio to embrace a broader ecosystem of user personas, preferences, and technologies within an enterprise's AI technology stack. SAS continues to develop offerings that streamline and automate the AI life cycle and enable organisations to make better business decisions faster." Key releases SAS Data Maker, first introduced through a private preview, is a synthetic data generator designed to help organisations address challenges related to data privacy and scarcity. The tool also aims to simplify data management processes and reduce resource usage. The development of SAS Data Maker was accelerated by SAS's recent acquisition of principal software assets from Hazy, a specialist in synthetic data. General availability for SAS Data Maker is expected in the third quarter of 2025. SAS Viya Intelligent Decisioning, which is currently available, offers organisations the ability to create and deploy intelligent AI agents with a controlled mix of AI autonomy and human involvement. According to SAS, this is intended to ensure appropriate oversight for tasks with varied complexity and risk profiles. Another new addition is SAS Managed Cloud Services: SAS Viya Essentials. This service packages selected SAS Viya products into an out-of-the-box managed cloud environment. Initially targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, SAS Managed Cloud Services: Viya Essentials is intended to reduce barriers to adopting AI solutions by providing an accessible hosted service. The SAS Viya Copilot, an AI-powered conversational assistant, is built into the SAS Viya platform to support developers, data scientists, and business users with analytical, business, and industry tasks. Currently available by invitation through a private preview, the general release is scheduled for the third quarter of 2025. The Copilot offers AI-powered assistance with model development and coding for SAS users. It is built on Azure AI Services, reflecting the ongoing partnership between SAS and Microsoft. SAS Viya Workbench, originally launched in 2024, is a cloud-based environment intended for developers, data scientists, and modellers. The workbench supports coding in SAS and Python via Visual Studio Code or Jupyter Notebook. Updates in 2025 include the addition of R language support, the integration of SAS Enterprise Guide as an optional development environment, and expanded availability to the Microsoft Azure Marketplace in addition to the existing AWS Marketplace. AI in practice SAS has reported that organisations using the Viya platform benefit from the ability to build and deploy AI models more efficiently. The platform's structure allows multiple job functions—including developers, data scientists, IT professionals, and business analysts—to collaborate throughout the data and AI life cycle. SAS suggests this collaboration streamlines the path to making informed business decisions and accelerates productivity across various sectors and regulatory contexts. Referencing industry research, SAS cited a 2024 AI productivity study by Futurum Group: "SAS Viya helps users accelerate the AI life cycle, enabling them to collect data, build models, and deploy decisions 4.6 times faster than selected competitors – all while helping them increase innovation, expedite decision making and drive revenue growth." "The current economic climate and rapid pace of AI innovation can feel intense and overwhelming," said Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer at SAS. "Our goal is to deliver cutting-edge AI capabilities that help organisations navigate the hype and disruption, make breakthroughs in problem solving, and gain a decision advantage." Real world usage SAS highlighted the use of its platform by Fathom Science, a start-up focused on marine data analytics. Fathom Science used SAS Data Maker to generate synthetic shipping lane data, expanding their dataset to 500,000 points, in order to validate a model designed to predict whale locations and reduce the risk of vessel strikes on critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. SAS Viya Workbench was used subsequently to develop machine learning models for calculating the probability of whales' proximity to shore, assisting with statistical and machine learning validation of the location prediction model. SAS stated that through these enhancements, the Viya platform aims to support a diverse range of users in addressing real business and environmental challenges efficiently with AI-driven solutions.
Cision Canada
07-05-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
From synthetic data to AI agents, new SAS Viya innovations boost speed, productivity and trust Français
ORLANDO, Fla., May 7, 2025 /CNW/ -- SAS Innovate -- Data and AI leader SAS today announced its latest offerings on the SAS ® Viya ® platform, spanning the latest leaps in AI advancement to scale and galvanize human productivity and decision-making. "SAS is evolving its strategy and portfolio to embrace a broader ecosystem of user personas, preferences, and technologies within an enterprise's AI technology stack," said Kathy Lange, research director for AI Software at IDC. "SAS continues to develop offerings that streamline and automate the AI life cycle and enable organizations to make better business decisions faster." The latest and upcoming SAS Viya debuts include: SAS Data Maker – Introduced through private preview last year, SAS' secure synthetic data generator helps organizations tackle data privacy and scarcity challenges, while simplifying processes and conserving resources. Accelerated through SAS' recent acquisition of synthetic data pioneer Hazy's principal software assets, SAS Data Maker is expected for general availability in the third quarter of 2025. SAS Viya Intelligent Decisioning – Available now, SAS Viya Intelligent Decisioning facilitates building and deploying intelligent AI agents with just the right AI-autonomy-to-human-involvement ratio to strike the optimal oversight balance for task complexity, risk and business goals. SAS Managed Cloud Services: SAS Viya Essentials – A packaged Managed Cloud Services offering of select SAS Viya products, SAS Managed Cloud Services: SAS Viya Essentials was launched in early 2025. Currently targeted to small and mid-size businesses, SAS Managed Cloud Services: Viya Essentials reduces the barrier to entry, delivering SAS Viya in a small, out-of-the box hosted managed service. SAS Viya Copilot – Built on Microsoft Azure AI Foundry, SAS Viya Copilot is an AI-driven conversational assistant embedded directly into the SAS Viya platform that gives developers, data scientists and business users alike a powerful personal assistant that accelerates analytical, business and industry tasks. SAS Viya Copilot is currently available via an invitation-only, private preview, with the general availability release coming in the third quarter of 2025. Key features of the initial Copilot offering include AI-powered model development and code assistance for SAS users. SAS Viya Workbench – Released in 2024, SAS Viya Workbench is a cloud-based coding environment purpose-built for developers, data scientists, and modelers to significantly improve speed and efficiency and easily conduct data management, analysis, and model development using SAS or Python code, through Visual Studio Code or Jupyter Notebook. New in 2025 is the support of R coding, SAS Enterprise Guide as an optional integrated development environment (IDE) option, and the expansion from the initial availability on AWS Marketplace to now include availability on Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Learn more about SAS data and AI products at: Unparalleled productivity, trusted results SAS is breaking through the AI and GenAI hype to deliver real capabilities that drive real results with SAS Viya – a comprehensive data and AI platform that empowers people of all skill levels to participate in the analytics process. The SAS Viya platform delivers users a choice to be a builder of AI with end-to-end platform tools, or buyers of AI solutions and model packages – each delivering scale and productivity to enable better decisions and faster time to value. Developers, data scientists, IT professionals and business analysts can collaborate seamlessly within the SAS Viya ecosystem and throughout the data and AI life cycle to make intelligent decisions. SAS Viya accelerates productivity across diverse industries and regulatory landscapes, offering a clear advantage to organizations, particularly CIOs and IT leaders. In fact, a 2024 Futurum Group AI productivity study revealed that SAS Viya helps users accelerate the AI life cycle, enabling them to collect data, build models, and deploy decisions 4.6 times faster than selected competitors – all while helping them increase innovation, expedite decision making and drive revenue growth. "The current economic climate and rapid pace of AI innovation can feel intense and overwhelming," said Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer at SAS. "Our goal is to deliver cutting-edge AI capabilities that help organizations navigate the hype and disruption, make breakthroughs in problem solving, and gain a decision advantage." Supporting global conservation with data and AI The power of SAS Viya extends beyond improving business outcomes to boosting global conservation efforts. Fathom Science, a technology start-up building digital twins of the ocean, tapped SAS Viya to tackle an impractical problem that brought together the unlikely combination of ocean data, AI and a species in need of a lifeline. To validate their state-of-the-science whale location prediction model that helps prevent vessels from striking critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, Fathom Science used SAS Data Maker to create synthetic data with the characteristics of the actual shipping lane data to expand to 500,000 data points. With the data in hand, SAS Viya Workbench was used to develop models to calculate the probability of whales' distance from shore. The result? Fathom Science gained statistical and machine learning validation of its whale location prediction model. Today's announcement was made at SAS Innovate, the data and AI experience for business leaders, technical users and SAS Partners. Keep up with the latest news from SAS by visiting or follow us on LinkedIn or X. About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. With SAS software and industry-specific solutions, organizations transform data into trusted decisions. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW ®. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2025 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
