Introducing Associative Filters in Astrato: Ask smarter questions, get better answers

Ever struggled to answer a seemingly simple business question – like identifying customers who bought running shoes but never purchased socks? 

Most legacy BI tools rely solely on traditional filters, forcing users to wrangle multiple reports, manually cross-reference data, or write complex SQL or DAX queries – turning a straightforward question into a tedious task. It’s a headache.

Now, imagine doing it in a few clicks. That’s the power of Associative Filters in Astrato.

Why traditional filters fall short

Traditional filters come with a set of frustrating limitations that slow down analysis and create unnecessary complexity.

• Data silos: filters remove data from view rather than showing relationships, leading to incomplete insights.
  
• Sequence dependency: the order in which you apply filters affects results, making it difficult to tweak your queries.
  
• Manual workarounds: users often resort to exporting data to spreadsheets or writing custom SQL just to get the answers they need. 

Most BI tools let you apply filters to narrow down datasets, but they don’t show how different data points relate to each other. That means:

❌ You can see who bought running shoes, but not who didn’t buy socks.

❌ You can filter employees that have Python skills, but can’t easily find who also knows SQL.

❌ You can track sales from this month in Store A, but can’t compare them to last month in Store B – at least, not without extra work.

Filters should work the way your brain thinks. 

That’s why we built Associative Filters.

What are Associative Filters in Astrato?

Associative Filters are super-smart filters that uncover patterns traditional filters can’t. They handle large data sets, adapt dynamically to new information, and let users define multiple rules and relationships between them. Simply put, Associative Filters let you explore data by relationships, not just exclusions. 

Instead of simply removing data that doesn’t match your criteria, they enable contextual filtering by looking at how entities connect – giving you a deeper, more flexible way to analyze your business.

With Associative Filters, self-service users can answer complex business questions effortlessly – something that would typically require creating a formula or following a complex sequence of filters in other tools. For example:

✅ Find customers who bought something in 2025 but not in 2024.
✅ Identify customers who bought both Product A and Product B.
✅ Pinpoint products that are a success in Europe but not in the U.S.
✅ Analyze customers who bought one item from a bundle but not the full set.

Watch this quick video for more context.

How Associative Filters are different 

Unlike traditional filters that only apply one rule at a time, Associative Filters handle multiple rules simultaneously. They allow for:

• Intersection filtering: show only the entities that match both rules (e.g., customers who bought both Product A and Product B).
  
• Union filtering: includes entities that match either rule (e.g., customers who bought Product A OR Product B).
  
• Scalability: removes entity limits – filtering thousands or millions of entities is seamless.
  
• Dynamic updates: filters automatically update in real-time as your data changes, meaning reports are always accurate without constant reconfiguration. This is especially powerful when combined with Astrato’s Dynamic Bookmarks for seamless report sharing.

Why business users should be excited about Associative Filters

Associative Filters have the potential to change how business users interact with data. Instead of spending hours wrangling spreadsheets, writing formulas, or navigating complex filter logic, users can explore data naturally – just like asking a colleague a question.

This means:

• 🚀 Faster insights: get the answers you need without extra steps or manual work.
• 📊 More confidence in data: see all relevant relationships instead of accidentally excluding valuable insights.
• 🎯 No technical expertise required: designed for everyone, from executives to frontline teams, making data exploration truly self-service.

Associative Filters come in handy across industries and use cases:

🛒 Retail & E-commerce
Identify customers who bought winter jackets but didn’t buy gloves, so you can launch targeted upsell campaigns.

📢Marketing & Advertising
Analyze which demographics engaged with a campaign but didn’t convert, allowing you to optimize future outreach.

💰Financial Services & Banking
Pinpoint clients who hold one type of account but not another, helping you cross-sell relevant financial products.

👥Human Resources & Workforce Planning:
Find employees with specific skill combinations for better internal mobility and succession planning.

🏥Healthcare & Life Sciences
Identify patients who received Treatment A but not Treatment B, improving personalized care plans and research insights.

🚛Supply Chain & Logistics
Analyze inventory that sells well in one region but not another, optimizing distribution and stock management.

Could this be the future of BI?

In our books, Associative Filters are more than just a new way to filter data. They lay the groundwork for a future where AI-driven filtering understands natural language queries and uncovers insights you didn’t even think to ask for. By enabling users to define complex relationships between data points intuitively, this feature provides the structural foundation AI needs to interpret human-like queries.

Imagine simply typing: “Show me clients who signed up for our premium service but never used feature X in the past three months.” Instead of manually setting multiple filters, the system would understand the intent and return precise results – just like having a conversation with your data.

In future versions, we plan to enhance Associative Filters with:

• Filtering by measures to analyze quantitative aspects dynamically.
  e.g. Find customers who purchased more than three products in a given period or identify products with a margin above 30% and revenue over $10K.
  
• Multi-fact support to handle even more complex relationships across datasets.
  e.g. Analyze business questions requiring different relationship paths, such as customers who bought Product A but did not return it, even when sales and returns exist in separate datasets.
  
• AI-driven query interpretation, making it easier than ever to explore data without technical expertise.

Traditional filters give you answers. Associative Filters give you the right answers. No more digging through spreadsheets. No more writing custom SQL. Just click, filter, and go!

Try Associative Filters in Astrato today.