Build Voice Agents in ElevenLabs with access to Live SQL Analysis Services Data

ElevenLabs is a leading AI audio platform that enables developers to build conversational voice agents capable of natural, human-like interactions. The ElevenLabs Conversational AI platform allows you to create voice-powered assistants that can reason through tasks, respond dynamically, and interact with external systems in real time.

By integrating ElevenLabs with CData Connect AI through the MCP (Model Context Protocol), your voice agents gain the ability to query, analyze, and act on live SQL Analysis Services data during conversations. This integration bridges ElevenLabs' conversational AI framework with the governed enterprise connectivity of CData Connect AI, ensuring all data access runs securely against authorized sources without manual data movement.

This article outlines the steps to configure SQL Analysis Services connectivity in Connect AI, generate the required authentication credentials, register the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs, and verify that your voice agent can successfully interact with live SQL Analysis Services data during conversations.

Step 1: Configure SQL Analysis Services connectivity for ElevenLabs

Connectivity to SQL Analysis Services from ElevenLabs is made possible through CData Connect AI's Remote MCP Server. To interact with SQL Analysis Services data from your voice agents, start by creating and configuring a SQL Analysis Services connection in CData Connect AI.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select SQL Analysis Services from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Analysis Services.

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update user-based permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

A Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI from ElevenLabs. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each integration to maintain granular access control.

1. Click the gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open Settings
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
3. Give the PAT a descriptive name (e.g., "ElevenLabs Voice Agent") and click Create

4. Copy the token when displayed and store it securely. It will not be shown again

With the SQL Analysis Services connection configured and a PAT generated, ElevenLabs can now connect to SQL Analysis Services data through Connect AI.

Step 2: Add the Connect AI MCP Server in ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs supports connecting to external MCP servers that use SSE (Server-Sent Events) or HTTP streamable transport. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server is compatible with this integration.

1. Log into the ElevenLabs platform and navigate to your agent dashboard
2. Go to Integrations and click + Add Integration to access the MCP server integrations section
3. Click on Custom MCP Server to add a new integration
4. Enter the following configuration:
   • Name: CData Connect AI
   • Description: Access live enterprise data from hundreds of sources
   • Server URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/sse
   • Secret Token: Leave empty (authentication is handled via headers)
   • HTTP Headers: Add a header with key Authorization and value Basic your_email:your_PAT
   
5. Replace your_email:your_PAT with your Connect AI login email and the Personal Access Token you created earlier. For example: Basic [email protected]:ABC123...XYZ789
6. Click Save to test the connection and retrieve available tools from Connect AI
7. The CData Connect AI MCP server is now available to assign to your voice agents

Step 3: Configure your Voice Agent to use Connect AI

With the MCP server registered, you can now add it to your ElevenLabs voice agents to enable real-time data access during conversations.

1. Create a new agent or edit an existing agent in the ElevenLabs dashboard
2. In the agent configuration, navigate to the Tools section
3. Add the CData Connect AI MCP server you configured in Step 2
4. Configure the tool approval mode based on your requirements:
   • Always Ask: The agent will request permission before each data query (recommended for sensitive data)
   • Fine-Grained: Set approval requirements per tool/action
   • No Approval: The agent can query data autonomously
5. Save your agent configuration

Step 4: Interact with live data through your Voice Agent

Your ElevenLabs voice agent can now access and query live SQL Analysis Services data through the CData Connect AI MCP Server during conversations.

1. Start a conversation with your voice agent
2. Ask your agent data-related questions such as:
   • "What connections are available?"
   • "Show me the schemas for SQL Analysis Services"
   • "Query recent records from SQL Analysis Services data"
   • "Summarize our latest Data"
3. The agent will use the Connect AI MCP tools to retrieve live data and respond conversationally

Your ElevenLabs voice agent is now fully configured to access and query live SQL Analysis Services data through the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server, enabling real-time, data-driven voice interactions for your users.

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