Use ChatGPT to Talk to Your Anaplan Data via CData Connect AI

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ChatGPT to securely answer questions and take actions on your Anaplan data for you.

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2022. Based on large language models (LLMs), it enables users to refine and steer conversations through natural language processing. ChatGPT's developer mode, available to Plus and Pro subscribers, provides full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for connecting to external data sources and tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Anaplan data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between ChatGPT and Anaplan. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Anaplan data using ChatGPT, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Anaplan. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Anaplan data.

Step 1: Configure Anaplan Connectivity for ChatGPT

Connectivity to Anaplan from ChatGPT is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Anaplan data from ChatGPT, we start by creating and configuring a Anaplan connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into your Connect AI account, click Sources, and then click Add Connection.
  2. Adding a Connection
  3. Select "Anaplan" from the Add Connection panel.
  4. Selecting a data source
  5. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Anaplan.

    Authenticating to Anaplan

    The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

    Using Basic Authentication

    Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

    Using Certificate Authentication

    Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

    Using OAuth Authentication

    Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

    • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
    • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
    • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

    See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  6. Click Save & Test

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to Anaplan data from ChatGPT.

Step 2: Connect ChatGPT to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connection in ChatGPT:

  1. Sign in to ChatGPT with a Plus or Pro subscription.
  2. Navigate to Apps from the left panel.
  3. Select the CData Connect AI app from the list.
  4. . Search for CData Connect AI
  5. Click Connect to authenticate to your Connect AI account.
  6. Click Connect to authenticate
  7. Click Sign in with CData Connect AI to add Connect AI to your ChatGPT account.
  8. Sign in with CData Connect AI
  9. After successful authorization, you will be redirected back to ChatGPT.
  10. Click Start Chat to start a new conversation in ChatGPT with Connect AI connected at the background.
  11. Start Chat

Step 3: Explore Live Anaplan Data with ChatGPT

  1. Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
  2. Connect AI should ideally be automatically enabled in the chat. If not, navigate to -> More -> CData Connect AI, under the chatbox, to enable the connector from the dropdown
  3. Enable CData Connect AI in the chat
  4. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. ChatGPT will use the Connect AI MCP server to query your live Anaplan data. Example prompts:
    • "Show me all customers from the last 30 days"
    • "What are my top performing products?"
    • "Analyze sales trends for this quarter"
    • "List all active projects and their current status"
    Refer to CData prompt library for more prompt ideas.
  5. Using natural language to explore your Anaplan data (Salesforce used here).
  6. Permit ChatGPT to access your Anaplan data. Click Query Data to continue, or Deny to refuse.
  7. Give permissions to ChatGPT.
  8. ChatGPT translates your natural language queries into SQL and execute them against your Anaplan data through the Connect AI MCP server.
  9. ChatGPT shows the desired results from your Anaplan data based on the prompts

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect AI or sign up for free trial access:

Free Trial