Reports
AI Business Narrative & Forecasting
Get an AI briefing, deterministic forecast, and client-readiness Business Health snapshot. AI conversation messages cost 1 Spark. Requires PRO.
Last updated 27 July 2026
Get an AI-written summary of your venue's performance, a forward-looking forecast for the week ahead, a health assessment of your customer database, and automatic alerts when something unusual happens, all on the Intelligence Dashboard.
TL;DR
- The AI briefing summarises your period's performance in 2 to 3 sentences with highlight bullets and suggested questions you can tap to start a conversation
- Each conversation message costs 1 Spark; narratives are cached for 30 minutes so you are charged once per unique date range, not per page load
- Smart alerts need at least 1 to 2 weeks of booking history before they can trigger, no alerts on a brand-new account is expected
- Business Health uses transparent per-metric minimums and a deterministic summary; opening or refreshing it does not consume a Spark
Overview
AI Business Narratives & Forecasting lets you:
- Read a personalised briefing that summarises what happened in your business and what to act on
- Ask follow-up questions in a multi-turn conversation with the AI briefing
- View a 7- or 14-day forecast showing confirmed and projected revenue, bookings, and daily booking pace versus typical
- Assess your customer database health across six dimensions with a colour-coded score
- Receive smart alerts when the system detects anomalies like cancellation spikes or revenue pace warnings
Note
AI narratives, the deterministic forecast, and Business Health require a PRO subscription. Smart alerts are available on all plan tiers. Each AI conversation message costs 1 Spark. Opening or refreshing Revenue Forecast does not use AI or consume a Spark.
Your AI Briefing
The Your AI briefing card appears at the top of the Intelligence Dashboard in the Headlines section.
What the Briefing Shows
When you open the Intelligence page, the AI briefing automatically generates a briefing containing:
- A narrative summary: 2 to 3 sentences (max 80 words) explaining what happened during the selected date range
- Three highlights: bullet-pointed insights (max 15 words each): the strongest positive signal, the biggest risk or gap, and an actionable recommendation
- Suggested question chips: 3 contextual questions you can tap to start a conversation
The narrative draws on your venue's actual data: revenue, bookings, average ticket, occupancy, staff performance, service mix, storefront funnel, industry benchmarks, communications attribution, commission data, and revenue goal progress (if set).
Suggested Questions
Suggested questions are generated based on your current data. They follow a priority order:
| Priority | Condition | Example question |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Revenue goal set and behind pace | "What can I do to close the gap to my monthly target?" |
| 2 | Revenue goal on track | "What's driving my goal performance this month?" |
| 3 | Revenue goal exceeded | "I've hit my monthly target, what next?" |
| 4 | Revenue declined vs prior period | "Why is revenue down this period?" |
| 5 | Occupancy below 60% | "How do I fill my empty appointment slots?" |
| 6 | Booking rate below industry average | "How can I improve my booking conversion rate?" |
| 7 | High staff dependency (one staff > 50% revenue) | "How do I reduce my dependency on one team member?" |
| Fallback | No specific triggers | "What's my busiest day of the week?" |
Starting a Conversation
- Tap a suggested question chip, or type your own question in the "Ask your AI briefing…" text field.
- Your question appears right-aligned in a chat thread.
- The AI briefing responds with a markdown-formatted answer drawn from your data.
- Follow-up suggestion chips appear below each response.
- You can ask up to 5 questions per session.
After question 4, a warning appears: "Last question for this session." After question 5: "You've reached the limit for this session (5 questions)." with a "Start new session" button.
To return to the summary view at any time, tap "Back to briefing →".
Tip
Changing the date range resets your conversation and generates a fresh briefing for the new period.
FREE Tier
FREE users see a locked card with a lock icon and the heading "Unlock AI briefings with Pro". The description reads: "Upgrade to Pro to get a personalised AI briefing summarising what happened in your business and what to act on." Tapping "Upgrade to Pro →" navigates to billing settings.
Revenue Forecast
The compact Forecast panel appears in the Performance section (PRO only) under "NEXT 7 DAYS". Open the standalone Revenue Forecast report to switch between 7- and 14-day horizons.
What the Forecast Shows
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Projected Revenue | Confirmed revenue adjusted using the advance-booking pattern from four equivalent recent periods |
| Projected Bookings | Confirmed bookings adjusted using the observed advance-booking pattern |
| Revenue pace | Projected revenue as a percentage of typical revenue for an equivalent period |
| Daily booking pace | Confirmed bookings by day compared with the same day position in equivalent recent periods |
Daily Booking Pace Chart
Bars represent each day in the selected forward horizon:
- Days at 70% or higher of their typical confirmed-booking pace appear in the primary colour
- Days below 70% appear in amber and can be opened in the calendar for review
- This comparison is booking pace, not staff capacity, roster utilisation, or available appointment time
Low Confidence
Until four comparable periods are available, the forecast shows confirmed data only and states how many comparison periods were found. This avoids presenting a weak baseline as a prediction.
Business Health
The Business Health report is a PRO client-readiness snapshot. It combines current client-profile coverage with completed appointment history from the trailing 12 months.
Operational Summary
The summary is deterministic and does not consume a Spark. It highlights the strongest and weakest available signals without presenting incomplete data as zero.
Client profile readiness is a completeness measure: usable email coverage contributes 40%, phone coverage 40%, and postcode coverage 20%. SMS consent and recent visits remain visible engagement signals, but valid client consent choices do not lower readiness.
Six Analysis Panels
Below the narrative, six panels provide detailed breakdowns:
| Panel | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Client profile readiness | Profile completeness (0 to 100) from usable email, phone, and postcode coverage |
| Contactability | Clients with non-bounced email and/or a phone number with recorded SMS marketing consent |
| Retention | Return rates for first observed completed visits; incomplete future return months display a dash |
| Client Postcode Distribution | Current non-archived client postcode coverage and leading primary reference-map areas; shares use clients with recorded postcodes |
| Appointment Value Concentration | Leading team member, unambiguously linked client, and service shares of completed or arrived appointment value in the trailing 12 months |
| Lifetime Client Spend | Historical paid-order subtotal for current paying clients, including median, average, sample coverage, and highest-spend-group concentration |
Appointment Value Concentration uses all eligible stored appointment value as the denominator for every share. Each dimension shows its leading five groups, then reconciles remaining attributed value as Other and missing or ambiguous attribution separately. These shares are continuity prompts, not automatic risk ratings, profit, or payments received.
Minimum Data Requirements
Readiness, contactability, and geography need at least 5 current client records. Retention and appointment-value concentration need at least 10 completed or arrived appointments. Lifetime Client Spend needs at least 10 current clients with positive recorded paid-order subtotal and shows progress toward that threshold. Each unavailable section explains its own requirement.
Lifetime Client Spend is historical, not predictive. It sums paid-order item subtotal before order-level discounts and other checkout adjustments. It does not represent payment received, profit, future client value, or acquisition return. Clients with no recorded paid-order subtotal are excluded from the distribution, so the report shows both the paying-client count and coverage across all current client profiles.
Client Postcode Distribution is also a current profile snapshot, not a demand forecast. Postcode coverage uses all current client profiles. Area shares use only clients with a recorded non-blank postcode, while each row also shows its share of all current clients. Recognised postcodes use a reference map's primary area; unrecognised values remain visible as postcodes. These labels do not verify residence, travel distance, catchment, client activity, or future demand.
Archived clients, bounced email addresses, future appointments, pending appointments, cancellations, and no-shows are excluded where relevant. Retention uses both email and phone identity and avoids calling a client “new” when their lifetime visit count proves older history.
Smart Alerts
Smart alerts detect anomalies automatically and display them as cards at the top of the Headlines section. They are available on all plan tiers: no PRO subscription required.
Alert Types
| Alert | Icon | Severity | When it triggers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic surge | TrendingUp | Opportunity (green) | Today's storefront views exceed 2× the 7-day average (minimum 5 views, requires 7+ days data) |
| Revenue pace warning | TrendingDown | Warning (amber) | Next 7 days' confirmed revenue is below 65% of the 4-week average (requires 4+ weeks data) |
| Staff gap | Users | Warning (amber) | An active staff member has zero confirmed bookings in the next 48 hours (requires 2+ weeks data) |
| Cancellation spike | AlertTriangle | Warning (amber) | Last 24 hours' cancellations exceed 2× the daily average (requires 2+ weeks data) |
- A maximum of 2 alerts are shown at a time, prioritised by confidence (warnings before opportunities)
- Each alert includes a title, description, and an optional action button
- Alerts can be dismissed by tapping the close (X) button, dismissed alerts reappear the next day if the condition persists
- After dismissing all alerts, a brief "All caught up" confirmation with a green tick appears for 2 seconds
Confidence Scoring
Alert confidence increases with the amount of historical data available:
| History | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 week | 0% (alert suppressed) |
| 1 week | 40% |
| 2 weeks | 70% |
| 3+ weeks | 100% |
Alerts with low confidence are suppressed until enough history accumulates.
Caching & Freshness
AI-generated content is cached to provide instant page loads and reduce Spark consumption:
| Content | Cache duration | Refresh trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Narrative briefing | 30 minutes | Changing the date range generates a fresh narrative |
| Business Health data and deterministic summary | 15 minutes, no Spark charge | Page reload or pull-to-refresh |
| Smart alerts | 15 minutes | Page reload or pull-to-refresh |
| Forecast data | 15 minutes | Page reload or pull-to-refresh |
| Waitlist recovery coaching narrative | 12 hours | Refreshes on demand or after notable waitlist activity |
Mobile Differences
- Narrative truncation: On phones, the narrative is truncated to 200 characters with a "Read more" link. On tablets, the full narrative is shown.
- Quick Ask sheet: Tapping a suggested question opens a bottom sheet modal for conversation (instead of inline expansion on web).
- Suggested question chips: Displayed as a horizontal scrollable row on phones; flex-wrapped on tablets.
- Forecast panel: Displayed within the collapsible Performance zone.
- Smart alerts: Same functionality and display as web.
- FREE upgrade text: "Visit openchair.com to manage your subscription." (no direct billing link per App Store compliance).
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Narrative says "Your AI-generated business summary will appear here once you have enough booking data" | The venue needs at least 10 bookings before the narrative activates. Continue booking clients and check back. |
| "Your AI briefing is temporarily unavailable" with a "Try again" link | A temporary AI generation error. Tap "Try again". If it persists, the narrative will refresh automatically within 30 minutes. |
| "You've used your Sparks for this feature" | Your Spark balance is depleted. Top up your wallet in Settings → Plan & billing. See Understanding Spark (AI Credits). |
| Forecast shows confirmed values only | Four comparable periods are required for projection. Confirmed future bookings remain visible while the baseline builds. |
| A Business Health section is unavailable | Read the section-specific requirement. Readiness and contactability need five current clients; retention and concentration need ten completed or arrived appointments; Lifetime Client Spend needs ten current clients with positive recorded paid-order subtotal and shows current progress. |
| No smart alerts showing | No anomalies detected, this is good. Alerts only appear when something unusual is happening. You need at least 1 to 2 weeks of booking history before alerts can trigger. |
| Smart alert keeps coming back after I dismissed it | Dismissals last for one day only. If the underlying condition persists (e.g., a continued cancellation spike), the alert reappears the next day. |
FAQ
Why does my AI briefing say there's not enough booking data?
The AI narrative requires at least 10 bookings before it activates. Continue booking clients and check back, the briefing appears automatically once the threshold is met.
How much do AI briefing conversations cost?
Each message costs 1 Spark. Narratives are cached for 30 minutes per date range, so changing the date range triggers a new charge but re-opening the same range does not.
Why do smart alerts keep reappearing after I dismiss them?
Dismissals last one day only. If the underlying condition persists, such as a continued cancellation spike, the alert reappears the next day.
Why is the forecast only showing confirmed values?
Projection requires four comparable periods so it can measure how much business is normally booked this far in advance. Confirmed future bookings remain visible in the meantime.