IBM released Cognos Analytics Reporting update as part of Version 12.1.1.There were a lot of practical improvements, plus some real movement toward AI-driven reporting. Let me walk you through what stood out.
Reports Feel More Interactive
- First off, interactive brushing, a filtering mechanism, just got better. Before, it only handled basic highlighting between visuals. Now, you can filter across objects inside a report, so clicking on one chart can automatically update another. It’s a small thing, but it makes reports feel a lot more alive.
- IBM delivered master-detail relationships for the 11.1 visualizations. This means that users can link objects within a report, like clicking on a region in a table to filter the chart next to it. It’s one of those quality-of-life features report authors have wanted forever.
- Custom controls. Instead of adding JavaScript snippets every time, you can now package custom visuals or widgets once and reuse them like any other object in the toolbox. IBM will start publishing more of these in their Accelerator Catalog - think dynamic lists, expand/collapse rows, and financial report templates.
Some Everyday Usability Wins
A few smaller things that add up:
- There’s a new auto-refresh “kiosk mode”, perfect for reports that need to loop on a wall screen.
- Any old PGSDK charts will now convert automatically to the modern chart engine — no rebuilds.
- You can add a PDF table of contents automatically.
- Interactive and classic reports now work in all supported browsers. This is a very good thing.
- And admins can finally set email delivery defaults for scheduled reports.
IBM also cleaned up the sample data (goodbye 1990s test data) and made OLAP parameters easier to handle.
The Big Story — Reporting Agents
Now, this is where it gets interesting. IBM is introducing reporting agents. These are AI-enabled helpers that are built directly into Cognos. The initial release includes four agents:
- A recommendation agent that finds existing reports in response to your queries, asked in plain English.
- A summary agent that reads a report and tells you what’s going on.
- An authoring agent that helps you build a report conversationally.
- And a sharing agent that can email reports (and eventually push to Teams or Slack).
All agents are built on Cognos’ trusted data layer, so governance and security carry through. IBM is using its own LLM models for now, but they’re leaving the door open for companies to plug in their own in future releases. No vendor lock-in, a more open policy.
What’s Coming Next
Looking ahead, IBM is focusing on conditional formatting, better visual brushing, multiple PA cubes in data modules, and a responsive layout for reporting, similar to dashboards.
Overall, Cognos Reporting is becoming more flexible, interactive, and AI-aware without losing its enterprise backbone. It is still the same governed reporting environment, but it’s starting to feel more dynamic and assistive.