Google Analytics just got a new AI tool to help find insights faster

Services like Google Analytics are great for amassing key data to help you make the most of your web efforts, but zeroing in on the parts that matter most can be a time-consuming challenge. On Friday, Google added a new feature to its analytics service that taps AI to surface insights automatically.

Now available in the Assistant screen in the Google Analytics mobile app, the new automated insights feature "lets you see in 5 minutes what might have taken hours to discover previously," wrote Ajay Nainani, product manager for Google Analytics, in a blog post.

The tool taps Google machine intelligence to find key insights from among the thousands of metric and dimension combinations that can be reported in Google Analytics. More specifically, it combs through data and offers relevant insights and recommendations.

If you're a retailer trying to get ready for the holiday season, for instance, the tool can instantaneously surface opportunities and anomalies hiding in your data, such as which products are experiencing higher-than-normal sales growth, which advertising channels are driving the most conversions and the best returns, and what devices customers are using to engage with your brand.

The tool also offers quick tips on how to improve your Google Analytics data. And because it's based on artificial intelligence, it gets smarter over time as it learns more about your business and how you use the software, Google says.

The new automated insights feature is now available with the official Google Analytics mobile app on Android and iOS for English-speaking users. Google's now working on bringing it to the web version of the software and to other languages as well, Nainani said. Meanwhile, Google invites users to suggest insights they'd like to see automated and is collecting those ideas through an online form.