Asking questions of your data in plain English in Base

Some people think in queries. Most people think in questions. "Which customers haven't ordered since the spring?" is easy to say and a little fiddly to build. Ask about my data in Base by Zaweba bridges the gap: type the question in plain English and an AI, using your own account, turns it into one SELECT query in Base's SQL.

It is entirely optional. Base works fully without it, and the AI menu and the Ask AI panel stay greyed out until you connect an account. Nothing is sent anywhere until you ask.

Connecting your own AI

Base doesn't come with an AI of its own. You bring one. It works with Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Azure, Mistral, Grok, DeepSeek and others, with local models such as Ollama running on your own PC, or by copying and pasting with a chat website if you'd rather not connect an account directly. Once an account is connected, the AI menu comes alive and the Ask AI panel opens with Ctrl+Shift+A.

A local model is a good choice if you want everything to stay on your own computer. The copy and paste route needs no setup at all.

Asking a question

Type the question as you would ask a colleague. "Total sales by customer this year, largest first." "Members who joined in the last six months." "Products with stock below their reorder level." The AI writes a single SELECT, which only reads records and never changes them, and Base shows it to you.

Then you choose what to do with it. Run shows the results straight away. Open as query opens it as a query you can look at, adjust and save. Put in this query places the SQL into the query you already have open.

Checking the answer

An AI can misunderstand a question just as a person can. Look at the results with a critical eye. If you asked for this year and the dates start in 2019, the question was read differently from how you meant it. Open the query and read its SQL tab, or rephrase the question more precisely, naming the fields you mean.

Clear table and field names help the AI enormously. A field called InvoiceDate is easier to use correctly than one called D1.

What gets sent

By default, the AI sees your database's design, meaning its tables, fields, types, rules, relationships and the names of queries, forms and scripts, plus the open query. It doesn't see your records unless you tick Include sample rows, which sends the first three of each table and is off again every time you start. For most questions the design alone is enough.

Where it fits

Ask about my data is a fast way into the query designer, not a replacement for it. Use it to get a first draft of a tricky query, then refine it in the designer, add a parameter, save it, and build a report on it. Over time you'll pick up how the designer builds queries just by looking at the ones the AI wrote.

For people new to databases, that is perhaps the biggest benefit. Questions can be asked in your own words from the first day.