I2I-STRADA -- Information to Insights via Structured Reasoning Agent for Data Analysis

TL;DR

I2I-STRADA is a structured reasoning agent architecture that models the cognitive workflow of data analysis, improving planning coherence and insight generation over prior multi-agent systems.

Contribution

The paper introduces I2I-STRADA, a novel agentic framework that formalizes the reasoning process in data analysis through modular sub-tasks, enhancing interpretability and effectiveness.

Findings

Outperforms prior systems in planning coherence.

Achieves better insight alignment on benchmarks.

Demonstrates the importance of structured workflows.

Abstract

Recent advances in agentic systems for data analysis have emphasized automation of insight generation through multi-agent frameworks, and orchestration layers. While these systems effectively manage tasks like query translation, data transformation, and visualization, they often overlook the structured reasoning process underlying analytical thinking. Reasoning large language models (LLMs) used for multi-step problem solving are trained as general-purpose problem solvers. As a result, their reasoning or thinking steps do not adhere to fixed processes for specific tasks. Real-world data analysis requires a consistent cognitive workflow: interpreting vague goals, grounding them in contextual knowledge, constructing abstract plans, and adapting execution based on intermediate outcomes. We introduce I2I-STRADA (Information-to-Insight via Structured Reasoning Agent for Data Analysis), an agentic architecture designed to formalize this reasoning process. I2I-STRADA focuses on modeling how analysis unfolds via modular sub-tasks that reflect the cognitive steps of analytical reasoning. Evaluations on the DABstep and DABench benchmarks show that I2I-STRADA outperforms prior systems in planning coherence and insight alignment, highlighting the importance of structured cognitive workflows in agent design for data analysis.