What is SAS Viya Copilot?
Viya Copilot is a feature native to SAS Viya that transforms natural language into analytical actions, recommendations and explanations – helping every user turn questions into answers faster.
What can SAS Viya Copilot do?
Faster model pipeline development
How does Viya Copilot assist in developing models?
Viya Copilot accelerates model pipeline development in SAS Model Studio with AI-driven guidance, suggested pipeline nodes and clear explanations – so you can build, refine and evaluate models faster.
Code assistance with AI-driven precision
How does Viya Copilot generate, document and maintain SAS code?
Viya Copilot accelerates SAS coding by generating code, explaining it in natural language and adding inline comments for readability – both within SAS Viya and through the SAS Viya Copilot Extension for Visual Studio Code, where it also helps create reusable macros.
Streamlined model management
How does Viya Copilot help manage and govern models?
Viya Copilot simplifies SAS Model Manager tasks by providing instant access to product documentation through natural language queries, helping you efficiently organize, register and monitor your models within SAS Viya.
Augmented analytics & reporting (coming soon)
How will Viya Copilot enhance reports and dashboards?
In SAS Visual Analytics, Viya Copilot will automate data storytelling and dashboard creation for immediate, actionable business insights.
What are the benefits of SAS Viya Copilot?
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Controlled AI execution with human oversight
Maintain complete control with human-in-the-loop task execution, transparent AI decision-making that meets governance standards, and secure data storage that keeps your information protected.
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Faster data & AI development for higher user productivity
Empower everyone – from business users to analysts, data scientists and programmers – to contribute to organizational analytics. Viya Copilot is an AI assistant that enables users to work smarter and faster and deliver impactful insights from data.
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AI-driven intelligence that transforms complexity into clarity
Get transparency at every step, actionable business insights from complex outputs and intelligent suggestions that improve model performance, hyperparameters and feature engineering.
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Included with SAS Viya 4
SAS Viya Copilot is a native feature included at no extra cost with your SAS Viya subscription. There is no additional setup required to start using this conversational AI assistant to generate code, build model pipelines and automate tasks directly within your workflow.
How does the SAS & Microsoft partnership power SAS Viya Copilot?
Built on a foundation of innovation
SAS Viya Copilot is powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, combining Microsoft’s generative AI capabilities with SAS’ decades of analytics expertise to deliver secure, scalable, enterprise-ready AI solutions. In addition to SAS’ responsible AI capabilities, organizations can also apply Microsoft-provided AI safety and governance controls to support responsible generative AI applications.
"SAS Viya Copilot marks a significant milestone in our collaborative journey with SAS to leverage the power of AI and data analytics. Integrating an AI-driven conversational assistant directly into the SAS Viya platform empowers users to achieve improved levels of productivity and efficiency. This innovation democratizes access to advanced analytics, enabling users to make more informed decisions, streamline their workflows and fully harness the potential of their data." Lorraine Bardeen Corporate Vice President, AI Strategy & Transformation Microsoft
SAS Viya Copilot – Intelligent assistance today, agentic AI tomorrow
SAS Viya Copilot uses generative AI to turn natural language into analytics, insights and recommendations. Built on transparent, secure, human-controlled architecture, it lays the foundation for agentic AI, where trusted agents will automate tasks and orchestrate decisions while keeping humans in charge.
How SAS Viya Copilot can enhance industry use cases
Across industries, SAS Viya powers the AI and analytics use cases that teams depend on every day. Viya Copilot can augment this foundation with intelligent assistance that speeds up work, removes friction and helps people focus on higher-value outcomes.
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Banking
- Improve risk models. Understand model strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
- Explain customer behavior. See why customers act the way they do and optimize engagement.
- Predict next-best offer. Build models to identify and deliver the right product or service.
Insurance
- Price policies effectively. Build, test and document pricing models with guidance.
- Assess claim events. Understand high-impact, low-probability risks with model explanations.
- Develop risk models faster. Accelerate model creation with context-aware coding help.
Public sector
- Detect compliance errors. Write SAS code faster to flag compliance and filing issues.
- Determine social benefit eligibility. Select the most explainable, transparent models.
- Prioritize citizen requests. Model requests by need and urgency for faster response.
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Health care & life sciences
- Personalize patient communication. Analyze behaviors to improve engagement.
- Accelerate drug discovery. Write cleaner, maintainable code for faster research.
- Ensure trial participant safety. Gain clear explanations of safety-related models.
Manufacturing
- Forecast supply chain and demand. Rapidly build accurate forecasting models.
- Unlock IoT insights. Document and understand complex analytics for connected devices.
Who benefits from SAS Viya Copilot?
Viya Copilot adapts to how different users work.
Data scientists
Accelerate model pipelines with guided automation.
Analysts
Get on-demand explanations and visual insights.
Developers
Streamline code generation and documentation.
Executives
Access real-time, AI-driven storytelling for faster decisions.
Why choose SAS Viya Copilot for your organization?
Viya Copilot combines trusted analytics with the speed of generative AI.
- Democratize analytics across your enterprise: Empower business users, analysts and data scientists to access advanced analytics through natural language, eliminating technical barriers.
- Accelerate time-to-insight: Transform questions into answers in minutes instead of days, letting AI handle complex coding and analysis while you focus on strategic decisions.
- Maintain control & governance: Human-in-the-loop execution ensures every action requires approval, meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining accountability at every step.
- Trust transparent AI decisions: Every output includes clear explanations and complete documentation, so you understand how conclusions were reached and can confidently act on insights.
- Keep your data secure: All results and information stay within a secure environment, improving data privacy and security.
- Rely on proven technology: Viya Copilot combines SAS’ decades of analytics leadership with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, delivering enterprise-grade generative AI you can trust.
- Scale from insights to action: Move beyond static code to dynamic recommendations that suggest improvements for model performance, feature engineering and business strategy.
- Reduce dependency on specialized skills: Lower the barrier to advanced analytics, reducing bottlenecks and freeing up your data science team to focus on high-value innovation.
- Enable compliance and auditability: Comprehensive documentation and transparent decision-making help you meet industry regulations and internal governance standards with confidence.
- Adopt a future-ready AI architecture: It is built on a foundation that is evolving toward agentic AI capabilities, ensuring your investment grows with emerging technologies and your organization’s needs.
SAS Viya is cloud-native and cloud-agnostic
Consume SAS how you want – SAS managed or self-managed. And where you want.
Recommended resources for SAS Viya Copilot
SAS Innovate Presentations
SAS Viya Copilot frequently asked questions
What is SAS Viya Copilot?
SAS Viya Copilot is a generative AI assistant that turns natural language into analytical actions, recommendations and explanations. It helps users across roles – data scientists, analysts, developers and business leaders – interact with SAS Viya using simple conversational prompts.
How does SAS Viya Copilot work?
Viya Copilot interprets your intent, recommends actions, generates SAS code or visualizations, and explains results in plain language. It’s built on the SAS Viya platform and powered by SAS’ trusted generative AI framework.
What can SAS Viya Copilot do?
SAS Viya Copilot can:
- Guide model pipeline development.
- Generate and review SAS code.
- Write an explanation of a block of SAS code.
- Explain analytical outcomes clearly.
- Recommend optimizations for model performance.
- Generate clear explanations of the output at each step in the pipeline.
- Answer questions that accelerate model development tasks.
- Facilitate the consumption of user documentation.
How does SAS Viya Copilot turn natural language into analytical insights?
SAS Viya Copilot uses a secure three-step process to transform conversational prompts into governed analytical results:
- Understand: It uses natural language processing to interpret user intent and translate business questions into precise analytical tasks – no coding required.
- Execute: The AI generates code and builds models while maintaining full transparency and human-in-the-loop oversight at every stage.
- Deliver: Complex outputs are converted into clear, actionable insights and documentation that meet strict organizational governance standards.
Who can use SAS Viya Copilot?
Viya Copilot is designed for everyone who works with data:
- Data scientists who need faster model iteration.
- Analysts who want quick explanations and insights.
- Developers who need code support.
- Executives who value AI-driven storytelling and decision summaries.
What industries will be able to use SAS Viya Copilot?
Over the coming months, SAS Viya Copilot plans to support copilots tailored to specific industries, including:
- Health care.
- Manufacturing.
- Banking.
- Insurance.
- Public sector.
How does SAS Viya Copilot differ from other AI copilots?
Unlike general-purpose AI assistants, SAS Viya Copilot is built on trusted SAS analytics. It combines domain-specific models, strong governance and transparent explanations – helping organizations apply generative AI with accuracy, accountability and control.
Key differentiators summary
SAS Viya Copilot features
- Governance
- Bulit in, enterprise-grade
- Target users
- Enterprise, regulated industries
- SAS language
- Supported
- Analytics focus
- Model pipelines, data analysis, SAS code assistance
- Unified experience
- Deeply embedded with SAS Viya
- Human control
- Human-in-the-loop by design
- Industry specificity (coming soon)
- Marketing, health care, banking, public sector, insurance
Other AI copilots
- Governance
- Often added later
- Target users
- General developers
- SAS language
- Not available
- Analytics focus
- Primarily code generation
- Unified experience
- Often standalone or loosely integrated
- Human control
- Varies
- Industry specificity
- General purpose
Which SAS products work with SAS Viya Copilot?
Viya Copilot integrates seamlessly with SAS Model Studio, SAS Extension for Visual Studio Code and SAS Model Manager, creating a unified workflow across the SAS Viya platform.
When will more SAS Viya copilots be available?
SAS plans to introduce additional copilots for a variety of industry- and function-specific use cases over the coming months.
How much does SAS Viya Copilot cost?
SAS Viya Copilot is included at no extra cost as part of a SAS Viya subscription. It is an embedded feature of the SAS Viya platform designed to accelerate productivity for all users – from developers to executives.
How does SAS Viya Copilot ensure my data remains secure?
SAS Viya Copilot is built on a foundation of trusted SAS analytics with security and governance in mind. All results and information stay within a secure environment, which improves data privacy and security. You can learn more about SAS' commitment to security, privacy and compliance in the SAS Trust Center.
