Use ChatGPT to Talk to Your Zuora 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 Zuora 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 Zuora data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between ChatGPT and Zuora. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Zuora 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 Zuora. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Zuora data.

Step 1: Configure Zuora Connectivity for ChatGPT

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select "Zuora" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Zuora.

    Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

    Configuring Tenant property

    In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

    • USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
    • USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
    • USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
    • EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
    • EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

    Selecting a Zuora Service

    Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

    DataQuery

    The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

    Limitations
    • The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
    • The maximum number of output records: 100,000
    • The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
    • The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
    • The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
    • The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
    • The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

    AQuADataExport

    AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

    Limitations
    • If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
    • The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.
  4. Click Save & Test

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

Step 2: Connect ChatGPT to CData Connect AI

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

  1. Sign in to ChatGPT with a Plus or Pro subscription.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Connectors.
  3. Under the "Advanced settings" section, toggle on Developer mode.
  4. Once developer mode is enabled, return to the Connectors page and click Create.
  5. Enter a name for the connector (such as Connect AI MCP).
  6. In the Remote MCP server URL field, enter:
    https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
  7. Set Authentication to "OAuth."
  8. Check I trust this application and click Create
  9. You will be redirected to CData Connect AI's OAuth authorization page. Sign in with your Connect AI credentials.
  10. Review the permissions requested and click Authorize to grant ChatGPT access to your Connect AI resources.
  11. After successful authorization, you will be redirected back to ChatGPT.
  12. The Connect AI MCP Server will now appear in your available connectors list where you can manage the connector and enable/disable actions (tools).

Step 3: Explore Live Zuora Data with ChatGPT

  1. Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
  2. In the tool picker, enable "Developer Mode."
  3. Enable your Connect AI MCP Sever.
  4. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. ChatGPT will use the Connect AI MCP server to query your live Zuora 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's prompt library for more prompt ideas.
  5. ChatGPT will translate your natural language queries into SQL and execute them against your Zuora data through the Connect AI MCP server.

IMPORTANT: ChatGPT's developer mode provides full read/write MCP access. Be cautious when allowing write operations to your Zuora data. Always review and confirm any data modifications before allowing them to proceed.

NOTE: Developer mode is in beta and only available to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers. Refer to OpenAI's documentation for the latest setup information.

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