Grafana has announced its AI assistant will now be free for open source and on-premise users, unveiled at their conference in Barcelona. CEO Raj Dutt humorously suggested users exercise caution with its usage. The company has also launched Grafana 13 alongside a revamped Loki log aggregator, hinting at their move into broader business analytics beyond mere observability tools.

The latest version of Grafana introduces curated dashboards targeting specific data sources, incorporating methodologies like DORA, and offering dynamic dashboards. Enhancements include a new query editor and Git Sync for ‘observability as code’ in GitOps workflows. The notable addition of the Grafana Assistant for on-prem and open source users requires a connection to a Grafana Cloud account, while keeping data localized. The assistant aims to automate tasks and can be accessed through Slack, Teams, API, or CLI.

Moreover, Grafana Cloud’s new ‘AI Observability’ feature delivers real-time insights into AI agents’ actions, as Principal Engineer Mat Ryer describes a comprehensive view into activity and potential policy breaches. Dutt expressed enthusiasm balanced with apprehension, as the service extends to a vast audience instead of a paying minority. The rollout is expected to drive revenue by expanding use cases into more mainstream business operations such as revenue and lifetime value metrics, filling gaps between business and observability data.

The revamped Loki includes Kafka-based ingestion and a restructured query engine, significantly decreasing redundant data storage, an advantageous upgrade at the petabyte operation level, according to Engineering Manager Poyzan Taneli.