What is SAS Viya Copilot?
SAS 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, improve and explain SAS and Python code?
Viya Copilot accelerates SAS coding by generating new code, enhancing existing code, explaining it in natural language and adding inline comments for readability – all within SAS Viya and via the SAS Viya Copilot Extension for Visual Studio Code. It also helps create reusable macros, saving developers significant time and effort.
Streamlined model management
How does Viya Copilot help manage and govern models?
Viya Copilot provides a conversational interface for SAS Model Manager, making it easier to organize and govern models, manage projects and accelerate deployment across the model life cycle.
Augmented analytics & reporting
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.
AI-assisted data governance
How does Viya Copilot help me navigate and understand my data estate?
In SAS Data Governance, Viya Copilot accelerates data discovery and cataloging for data stewards, analysts and engineers. By using natural language to query complex data estates, users can identify high-quality assets in a trusted, governed way, improving metadata transparency and data reuse across the organization.
Intelligent investigations
How does Viya Copilot support investigating and acting on suspicious activities?
In SAS Visual Investigator, Viya Copilot enables investigators to search, interpret and document information faster through AI-assisted analysis, allowing them to focus on high-stakes decision-making without altering their existing workflows.
See SAS Viya Copilot in action
Explore feature demos and technical walkthroughs from SAS Innovate 2026.
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 in SAS Viya 4, SAS Viya for Learners, SAS Visual Analytics and SAS Visual Statistics. 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 the SAS & Microsoft partnership powers 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
Agentic AI transforms the SAS Viya Copilot experience
SAS Viya Copilot goes beyond answering questions. With agentic AI, it helps users complete complex analytics tasks by understanding their goals, recommending next steps and performing actions across SAS Viya. Users remain in control, while built-in governance, transparency and oversight help ensure AI is used responsibly.
Apply SAS Viya Copilot to industry-specific analytics
SAS Viya Copilot brings generative AI assistance to analytics workflows across industries, helping users build models, visualize data and explain analytical results through natural-language interactions. Specialized SAS Viya Copilots extend these capabilities to industry-specific business problems.
- Banking
- Health Care & Life Sciences
- Insurance
- Manufacturing
- Retail, Consumer Goods & Supply Chain
- Public Sector
Banking & Financial Services
Banks and financial services organizations use SAS Viya Copilot to analyze risk, support regulatory compliance, detect fraud and uncover customer insights.
- Build: Risk models, fraud detection workflows, customer segmentation and forecasting models.
- Visualize: Risk exposure, customer trends, portfolio performance and operational KPIs.
- Explain: Risk drivers, model outcomes, customer behaviors and compliance findings.
- Industry copilots:
Health Care & Life Sciences
Health care and life sciences organizations use SAS Viya Copilot to analyze clinical and operational data, improve patient outcomes, accelerate research and optimize health care operations.
- Build: Patient risk models, clinical analytics workflows and operational forecasts.
- Visualize: Patient outcomes, clinical trial results, utilization trends and population health metrics.
- Explain: Care gaps, treatment effectiveness, operational performance and research insights.
- Industry copilots:
Insurance
Insurers use SAS Viya Copilot to improve underwriting, manage claims, assess risk and support capital management decisions.
- Build: Underwriting models, claims analytics, risk scores and capital management scenarios.
- Visualize: Loss trends, portfolio risk, claims performance and capital metrics.
- Explain: Risk exposures, pricing decisions, claims drivers and capital allocation impacts.
- Industry copilots:
Manufacturing
Manufacturers use SAS Viya Copilot to improve product quality, maximize equipment performance and optimize production operations.
- Build: Predictive maintenance models, quality analytics, production forecasts and process optimization models.
- Visualize: Equipment health, production throughput, quality metrics and operational efficiency.
- Explain: Downtime causes, quality issues, process variability and maintenance recommendations.
- Industry copilots:
Retail, Consumer Goods & Supply Chain
Retail, consumer goods and supply chain organizations use SAS Viya Copilot to forecast demand, optimize inventory, analyze what-if scenarios and respond faster to disruptions across the supply chain.
- Build: Demand forecasts, inventory plans, what-if scenarios and disruption response strategies.
- Visualize: Inventory health, service levels, fulfillment performance and forecast accuracy.
- Explain: Demand changes, supply risks, planning exceptions and business impacts.
- Industry copilots:
Public Sector
Public sector organizations use SAS Viya Copilot to support compliance, improve social benefit decisions and prioritize citizen requests for faster, more transparent services.
- Build: SAS code and models to identify compliance and filing issues, assess social benefit eligibility and prioritize citizen requests.
- Visualize: Compliance issues, eligibility factors, citizen requests, needs and urgency to support faster decision-making.
- Explain: Model results and eligibility decisions with transparent, explainable approaches.
Build with generative AI on SAS Viya
Build, explore and learn how to use generative AI and SAS Viya Copilot for analytics.
Build AI agents
Build context-aware AI agents that retrieve relevant information and generate fast, accurate responses with SAS Retrieval Agent Manager.
Get more from SAS Viya Copilot
Discover best-practice prompts in the SAS Viya Copilot Prompt Library and get practical tips for using SAS Viya Copilot effectively.
Learn how SAS Viya Copilot works
Explore SAS Viya Copilot documentation to learn about its capabilities, workflows and configuration.
Understand AI security & governance
Learn how SAS Viya Copilot helps protect your data and supports responsible AI through the SAS Trust Center.
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 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
- Built-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
- Manufacturing, health care, life sciences, banking, insurance, retail & consumer goods.
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, SAS Model Manager, SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics and SAS Viya for Learners, 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 SAS Viya 4, SAS Viya for Learners, SAS Visual Analytics and SAS Visual Statistics. 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.
How do I enable SAS Viya Copilot?
To set up and activate SAS Viya Copilot, an environment administrator must enable the feature on the latest release of SAS Viya. To get started with deployment, follow the step-by-step activation guides on SAS Communities.
