Originally published on the Preset Blog
Republished here with permission. Minor edits have been made for clarity and formatting.

In the world of open source software (business intelligence or otherwise), providing timely, accurate support to a growing community can be challenging. The Apache Superset project is the leading open source business intelligence (BI) platform, and is one of the largest projects of the Apache Software Foundation (with over 65,000 GitHub stars and over 19,000 Slack users). Superset has found a powerful solution to enable its community through partnering with kapa.ai, an AI-powered assistant that's revolutionizing how Superset users and contributors engage with the project.

The Challenge of Scale

Apache Superset has seen significant growth over recent years, and this growth brings tremendous opportunities but also challenges in ensuring that every community member can find the answers they need when they need them. The volunteers running our community on GitHub, Slack, and other fora are vastly outnumbered by people asking questions.

Before implementing AI solutions, the team of maintainers and contributors worked tirelessly to answer questions and unblock users/admins. As the project grows, this volume increases, and it becomes increasingly difficult to provide the responsive support the Superset community deserves.

Enter kapa.ai

The kapa.ai + Superset journey began in the Superset Slack workspace, where we introduced the AI assistant in a dedicated #ask-ai channel. The results were immediate and impressive. Community members could get instant responses to their questions, reducing wait times and freeing up human experts to focus on more complex issues.

Encouraged by this success, we recently expanded the integration to the official website at superset.apache.org. While this was only recently enabled, the impact has been even more significant than we anticipated.

Immediate Results

Since implementing Kapa's Ask AI on the Superset website, we've seen:

• A significant boost in user engagement

• Improved ability for users to locate and utilize relevant documentation

• More efficient onboarding for new users and contributors

• Over 4,500 monthly questions answered by the AI assistant (and counting!)

The most common topics addressed by Kapa include installation procedures and contribution guidelines, directly supporting two of our most important community growth vectors: product adoption and contributor acquisition.

We even got feedback from a community member that was unblocked within minutes of adding the integration:

Privacy and Compliance

A key consideration for any Apache Software Foundation project is data privacy and compliance. Kapa worked directly with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to establish a Data Processing Agreement (DPA), ensuring that all data remains private and anonymous unless a user explicitly opts in for the service.

This commitment to privacy and compliance means that Superset can leverage cutting-edge AI technology while maintaining the high standards expected of an ASF top-level project.

Real Impact on Open Source BI

The integration of Kapa into our support infrastructure has had tangible benefits for our mission to democratize business intelligence:

• Accelerating Product Adoption: New users can overcome installation hurdles more quickly, leading to higher conversion rates from curious visitors to active users.

• Empowering Administrators: System administrators can find configuration answers faster, enabling smoother deployments and management of Superset instances.

• Fostering Contributions: Potential contributors can navigate our guidelines more efficiently, reducing barriers to entry for those who want to give back to the project.

• Around-the-Clock Support: Our global community now has access to high-quality support at any time, regardless of time zone differences.

Looking Forward

The partnership between Apache Superset and kapa.ai represents more than just an improvement in our support infrastructure—it's a step forward in how open source projects can leverage AI to enhance community experiences.

As the Superset team continues to refine the integration and knowledge base, we anticipate further improvements in the accuracy and depth of responses, potentially expanding the AI's capabilities to assist with more complex technical issues and contribute to our documentation efforts. Confidence scores are already promising, and by continuously enriching the knowledge base with frequently asked questions surfaced by Kapa, we expect this trend to continue upward.

As next steps, the Superset team is considering adding Kapa to Superset itself, as an in-product assistant. They're also planning to launch a new Superset Community Dashboard within Superset itself (including the chart above), so anyone can see this growing engagement on a daily basis.

Conclusion

Through our partnership, Apache Superset is demonstrating how AI can be harnessed to strengthen open-source communities while respecting privacy and compliance requirements. By providing instant, accurate responses to common questions, we're removing barriers to entry, accelerating adoption, and helping open source business intelligence reach its full potential.

The result? A more engaged community, happier users, and a stronger foundation for the future growth of Apache Superset. As we continue on our mission to democratize data visualization and business intelligence, tools like Kapa will play an increasingly important role in ensuring that everyone can participate in and benefit from our project.

If you're interested in learning more about how kapa.ai can support your open source project or organization, book a demo to learn more. If you’re exploring new business intelligence solutions, please check out Apache Superset and Preset.