From Semantic Modeling to a Business Assistant

Build a procurement price assistant through this workflow: prepare runtime services → refine a semantic model with an assistant → publish the model → configure a business assistant → verify access and queries as an ordinary member. This tutorial uses a Procurement business domain, a Procurement users group, and a ProcurementPrices semantic model. Replace these example names and business fields with your own. You will use both Xpert and Data Xpert; select the same organization in both applications. This page covers the complete workflow. For individual configuration steps, use these companion tutorials:

• Initialize Organization Ontology and Modeling Assistants: workspaces, environment variables, MCP toolsets, templates, and binding checks.
• Configure and Publish a Business Assistant: creation and editing, user groups, model resources, publication, and ordinary-member acceptance.

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1. Understand the objects you will configure

Using an assistant, editing an assistant, and querying data require different permissions. Publishing in a workspace does not make an assistant available to the whole organization. Sharing an assistant does not automatically grant access to all of its data. Price lookup alone does not require ontology entities and relationships or a separately initialized organization ontology assistant. Initialize the semantic model modeling assistant if you want AI help with modeling. If a usable model already exists, proceed to business assistant configuration.

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2. Prepare runtime services

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2.1 Check the tenant ontology runtime

As a SUPER_ADMIN, open System Management → Platform Initialization → Tenant Ontology Runtime in Data Xpert.

1. Select an existing tenant ontology workspace, or create a suitable one on this page.
2. Click Initialize ontology runtime and wait for completion.
3. Check the runtime credential status and the Data Xpert AI Tools plugin status separately.
4. If the plugin reports Xpert restart required, ask the operator to restart the Xpert API instances using the deployment’s procedure, then refresh until the plugin is ready.

A saved runtime credential confirms only the credential step. Initialization is incomplete while the plugin is unavailable, waiting to load, or waiting for a restart. This runtime connects Data Xpert to Xpert and loads tools. It does not create a Python or Shell sandbox for every user or grant business data access. A business assistant also checks its own workspace runtime credential. If the creation page reports missing prerequisites, follow its link to configure the relevant workspace.

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2.2 Prepare a shared workspace for organization assistants

Organization built-in assistants require an organization-shared workspace in the current organization that the provisioning user can write to.

1. In Xpert, open the workspace menu and create or select a dedicated workspace, such as Organization assistants.
2. Open Settings → General → Workspace access.
3. Enable Organization-shared workspace and click Update.
4. Return to the Data Xpert initialization wizard and select this target workspace.

Alternatively, click Initialize Default Workspace in the wizard. Both organization assistants can use the same shared workspace.

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2.3 Initialize the organization semantic model modeling assistant

As a SUPER_ADMIN, open Current Organization Semantic Model Modeling Assistant:

1. Choose Workspace: select the organization-shared workspace and click Next.
2. Create Environment: confirm the environment name, such as Semantic Model Workbench. Keep the variable definitions supplied by the wizard; do not insert an administrator’s personal token as a fixed credential for all users.
3. Import Xpert DSL: turn on Enable assistant binding, select an available Copilot model from the current organization, and choose the Semantic model modeling assistant template.
4. Review the Xpert name and release notes, then click Start provisioning.
5. Wait for the success message. Confirm that the status is Configured and the current workspace matches your selection.

Provisioning creates or updates the assistant and updates the current organization’s binding. If the old workspace is no longer selectable, select an eligible shared workspace and initialize again. Changing the dropdown alone does not activate the new binding.

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2.4 Initialize the ontology assistant when needed

Open Current Organization Ontology Assistant, select the same shared workspace, and complete Create Environment → Create MCP Toolset → Import Xpert DSL. Choose the ontology assistant template and an available model, enable the binding, and start provisioning. The MCP toolset connects to Data Xpert’s ontology capabilities. Keep the connection parameters supplied by your deployment. If the MCP URL is missing, an administrator must fix the service configuration before retrying. Use this assistant in a resource detail page or ontology Workbench for questions such as “Which suppliers are related to this purchase order?” or “Which Actions are available for this resource?” Executing an Action still requires its permissions, policies, and approvals. Editing an ontology definition draft has separate management requirements; opening the assistant does not grant ontology editing rights. Checkpoint: The required plugin is ready, the organization assistant binding is enabled, and the model Workbench can open its assistant. Individual members do not need to initialize separate organization assistants.

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3. Configure the business domain, group, and member permissions

Decide who maintains resources and who consumes them before granting access.

1. In Xpert, open Settings → User Groups, create Procurement users, and add the intended users. A user group is a set of people; it does not have to match a company department.
2. In Data Xpert, open Governance → Business Domains, select Procurement, and grant this group Data consumer (consumer) under Members & access. If the domain does not exist, a user with business-area management permission must create it.
3. Give model authors authoring access to the model workspace and the domain’s Data publisher (publisher) role. Use Domain administrator (domain_admin) for people who manage grants within that domain.
4. Check members’ platform feature permissions. Domain roles do not grant query or modeling features automatically, and do not replace data source binding or credential checks.

BUSINESS_AREA_MANAGE is a platform permission for domain administration. Do not use it as the routine way to let procurement users look up prices. Parent-child domain relationships organize resources; grants do not inherit from a parent to its children. Personal grants, group grants, and platform permissions can coexist, so check other sources after revoking one grant.

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4. Refine and publish the semantic model

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4.1 Prepare a queryable model

In Data Xpert, open the target AI Workspace → Data Intelligence → Semantic Models. If you do not have a model, follow the Analytics Quick Start to bind a data source and configure a model, dimensions, and measures. This example requires a model that supports price lookup by material or drawing number. Define the lookup key, price field, currency, tax treatment, and selection rules when a material has multiple prices. Do not sum unit prices as a price-lookup result.

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4.2 Use the modeling assistant in the Workbench

1. Open ProcurementPrices and wait for the draft to show Synchronized.
2. Open the assistant panel on the right and select the relevant cube, dimension, or measure.
3. Inspect the structure before requesting edits. For example:

Check the material dimension, price measure, and relationships in the current model. List any issues that affect price lookup. Do not edit or publish yet.

After reviewing the proposed approach, continue with:

Apply the agreed changes to the current model draft. Explain which objects changed and report the validation results. Do not publish.

4. Review the changes and quality messages, then wait for the draft to synchronize again.
5. Run model validation and check a query against a known material.

The Workbench assistant uses the current model context. Hosting it in a shared workspace does not give it editing rights to every user’s models. SQL and XMLA models have different editing boundaries; use metadata refresh and source-system configuration for remote XMLA technical bindings.

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4.3 Publish to the correct business domain

Assign the model to Procurement, pass validation, and click Publish. Confirm that a published version exists. Business consumption uses the published model; later draft changes require another publication before consumers use them. Verify a known result in the query lab. A sample such as SELECT 1 AS value does not mean that the system has generated a query for your business model. Write a query, use a template, or ask the assistant to help generate SQL / MDX appropriate for the model, then run and verify it. Checkpoint: The model is published in Procurement, and a known material’s price, currency, and selection conditions match business records.

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5. Create the procurement price business assistant

In Data Xpert, open AI Workspaces → Target workspace → Assistant Agents. This workspace holds the business assistant’s configuration; it can differ from the shared workspace used by the organization modeling assistant. Use an account with business assistant management permission, write access to the target workspace, and publication permission in the target business domain. Click Create Business Assistant and select Business template. To update an existing assistant, use … → Edit on its list row. This tutorial follows the business template flow; Create new and Bind existing are alternative creation methods.

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5.1 Enter basic information

Team determines the assistant’s business display scope; it does not open access to the whole organization. Configure the audience under Resources & access. Hiding a menu entry also does not revoke usage permission.

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5.2 Configure capabilities

1. Open Capabilities.
2. Choose the plugin template Business assistant with data-xpert tools.
3. Select an available environment prepared for this assistant in the current workspace. Its name may be Ontology Runtime, Semantic Model Workbench, or a custom name. The name itself does not confer data access.
4. For MCP Instance, select Auto-create default MCP toolset, or an existing compatible instance prepared by your administrator.
5. Where business instructions are editable, define the lookup scope and rules. For example:

Use the authorized procurement model to look up material prices. Return the price, currency, tax treatment, and applicability conditions. When multiple records match, explain the differences and ask for more conditions instead of summing unit prices. If authorized data is unavailable, explain why and do not invent a price.

The template supplies tools, and instructions guide the response. Resource and caller permissions still control actual data access.

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5.3 Select the audience and resources

Open Resources & access:

1. Select Procurement users under Allowed user groups. Confirm that the group is selected; a visible candidate group is not necessarily an authorized group.
2. Under Accessible resources, select the resource for ProcurementPrices. Some lists show datax-semantic-model-<model ID>; check the model ID before selecting it.
3. Confirm the selected count and include only resources needed for the task.

The business assistant and its bound semantic models must belong to the same business domain. Selecting a domain does not automatically bind every model in it. When groups are selected, these Data Xpert-managed business assistants restrict their audience to those groups. Members must still meet domain and resource access requirements. Do not leave groups empty to mean “nobody can use this”; existing domain or sharing rules may allow access when no group is specified.

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5.4 Check and publish

1. Click Save draft. Saving a draft is not publication.
2. Click Review and publish and review readiness, template, extension capability, and resource checks.
3. Resolve failures and click Check again.
4. Confirm the business scope, resource count, and release notes, then publish. For an existing assistant, use Publish changes.
5. Wait for the creation and publication success message. Confirm that the list shows Published and the menu is enabled.

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6. Verify with ordinary member accounts

Use test accounts and known sample data to verify both allowed and denied cases. An administrator seeing the entry, or an assistant answering “hello,” does not prove that ordinary members have the correct query access. As an authorized member, open Procurement price assistant from the menu and ask:

Look up the procurement price of material 123456. Include the currency, tax treatment, and applicability conditions. If multiple records match, list their differences first.

Check that the result comes from the intended model and matches known business records. If the assistant only describes its capabilities, run an actual query before marking the workflow successful. Repeat the relevant checks after changing groups, model ownership, or bound resources.

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7. Troubleshooting

Continue with the Semantic Modeling Workspace, Semantic Model Assistant, Query Lab, or Ontology Studio.