# Is "deterministic AI" actually a new idea in analytics?

> 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:** 2026-09-28
- **Format:** Video · 1 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** AI & ML, Industry trends, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/deterministic-ai-not-new
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE67-ImGa6k

I unpack why "deterministic" has become a buzzword in AI-powered analytics, and argue the concept it describes - everyone getting the same, correct answer from a semantic model - is exactly what Tableau and BI were already built to solve years ago.

## Key takeaways

- "Deterministic" in AI analytics just means consistent, correct answers across users asking the same question
- BI tools like Tableau were originally built to solve this exact problem by moving teams off spreadsheets
- A trusted data foundation with predictable semantic models underpins the data-driven enterprise
- The industry risks rebranding solved problems as new buzzwords rather than building on prior solutions

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/deterministic-ai-not-new

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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