# Tableau VIZql Data Service, Headless BI, Decoupling & Layers | Announced at Tableau Conference 2023

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2023-05-29
- **Format:** Video · 15 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Industry trends, Tool strategy, AI & ML
- **Tools:** Tableau (ai, cloud, embedding, pulse, server, vizql data service)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-vizql-data-service-headless-bi-decoupling-layers-announced-at-tableau-conference-2023
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgj2zyGRz7s

I break down Tableau's VizQL Data Service, announced at the Tableau Conference 2023 keynote, along with the related ideas of headless BI and decoupling. Using diagrams I've prepared, I speculate about how these concepts and layers might reshape analytical and consumption workflows, alongside Tableau Pulse and Tableau GPT.

## Key takeaways

- Creation and consumption are separate journeys: analysts build from the data source upwards, while end users consume from the top down, and these flows don't always marry up.
- Headless BI means decoupling the data from the dashboard, so you no longer need a dashboard or metric to surface data through an API or external application.
- In the future model, Tableau Pulse, VizQL Data Service and dashboards become equal citizens sitting on top of the same data source on server or cloud.
- VizQL Data Service is primarily aimed at developers building embedded or external experiences, whereas Pulse and dashboards come ready to use out of the box.
- Tableau Pulse is likely to be cloud-only given the serious GPU, hardware and time investment required to train an LLM to Tableau GPT's intended capability.

## Chapters

- 1:12 Setting the scene and the diagram
- 2:28 How Tableau works today
- 5:05 What headless BI really means
- 6:17 The future layered model
- 8:17 VizQL Data Service and Tableau GPT
- 10:15 Today versus the future workflow
- 13:08 The cost of training an LLM

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/tableau-vizql-data-service-headless-bi-decoupling-layers-announced-at-tableau-conference-2023

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena