Publikation
From Data Querying to Data Investigations: Rethinking Natural Language Interfaces for Databases
Fabian Wenz; Zixuan Chen; Carsten Binnig
In: Computing Research Repository eprint Journal (CoRR), Vol. abs/2609.03898, Pages 1-6, arXiv, 2026.
Zusammenfassung
Natural language (NL) interfaces to databases have been optimized
for the wrong problem. The dominant Text-to-SQL paradigm as-
sumes that users ask questions that can be answered by single SQL
queries. In practice, however, users seek assistance with solving
data problems. This requires searching a database by sequences of
SQL queries while reasoning over intermediate results instead of
just running one SQL query. This paper therefore introduces a new
paradigm for NL interfaces to data, which we call data investiga-
tions. We present 𝐷2, a first prototype of a data investigation system
that embodies this vision by autonomously searching, reasoning
over, and collecting data to solve data problems. Using a newly
constructed benchmark based on the Murder Mystery dataset, we
demonstrate the potential of 𝐷2 for tasks that require data inves-
tigations with evidence-backed decisions, extending beyond the
capabilities of traditional single-query question answering.