Every month, JustWatch helps over 60 million people find where to stream movies, shows, and sports across 140+ countries. Behind that simple search experience sits a complex data operation processing billions of data points about what's streaming where and who's watching what.

With 150+ employees needing data access 24/7, JustWatch knew early on they couldn't gate-keep analytics behind a handful of overworked data analysts. Everyone from marketing managers to product leads needed to answer their own questions without bugging the data team every five minutes. But finding a BI tool that would let them do that was not easy. 

When your BI tool becomes a problem

Three years ago, JustWatch was running on a legacy BI platform. The product was fine but the pricing model was not.

With power users hitting 90% of their yearly quota in a month, JustWatch found it difficult to scale their BI tool with their team. The pricing model forced the data team into an uncomfortable position: hunting down users and asking them to... use less data.

When your business runs on data and your BI tool penalizes data usage, something's wrong.

Enter Lightdash: A different approach to BI

JustWatch discovered Lightdash through the dbt community. What caught their attention first was simple: dbt at its semantic foundation and flat-rate predictable pricing. Use it as much as you want, and pay one price.

The architecture that sealed the deal. Lightdash sits alongside your dbt project: same repo, same version control, same workflow. When you change a metric in dbt, it updates everywhere automatically, so you don’t have to coordinate across three different tools.

Within a few months, JustWatch had migrated completely off their old BI platform and onto Lightdash. The migration only took three months thanks to the dbt models JustWatch already had in place.

But here's where it gets interesting: JustWatch didn't just adopt Lightdash. They became an early design partner and began to help shape our platform: they helped us build Lightdash AI.

How JustWatch use Lightdash AI

Today, JustWatch is one of the biggest advocates of Lightdash.

Most AI features in BI tools feel like an afterthought. A chatbot bolted onto an existing product, generating slightly different SQL each time you ask the same question. While software engineers are using AI to write entire applications, data analysts are stuck clicking through drop-downs and hoping AI interprets their question correctly.

JustWatch wanted more, so we built it for them.

• Custom agents for different teams

JustWatch have several specialized agents, each with different instructions and data access for different departments. 

"We create specialized agents with different instructions and data access for different departments. Each agent has personalised context specific to its team’s domain, allowing it to do nuanced jobs." 

• AI agents that learn and remember

The AI agent gets smarter as people use it. When someone at JustWatch corrects an AI response or clarifies how to interpret data, the agent updates its own instructions and that correction can be applied to all future conversations.

• Answers to vague questions

One of the best things about Lightdash AI is that it can handle vague questions without getting confused. 

"It can handle vague questions. Instead of throwing an error or generating nonsense SQL, it coaches users through clarifying what they actually want to know."

• Actually usable self-service

With Lightdash AI, business users at JustWatch can ask questions in natural language, and build their own charts in minutes. The AI stays on the rails because it's working within the governed semantic layer.

• AI active in Slack

In Slack, team members ask questions directly to Lightdash AI agents. The AI handles straightforward queries on its own, and escalates complex ones.

The results show up in numbers

JustWatch has seen results like:

• 72% of employees using Lightdash monthly

• 45% increase in active BI users

• ~4k queries per day

• 86% reduction in BI tool spend

Lightdash queries now represent ~12% of JustWatch's Snowflake costs on working days as well. That's a sign of genuine adoption. When people can ask questions in natural language and get trustworthy answers immediately, they ask more questions, explore more, and make more data-informed decisions.

Collaborating with Lightdash: the real differentiator 

When asked about his favorite Lightdash feature, Aleksandr didn't mention AI, charts, dashboards or any product capability.

"My favorite feature of Lightdash is the collaboration with the Lightdash team. That's really what makes a difference compared to other vendors."

JustWatch and Lightdash communicate through a shared Slack channel. They have direct access to the team (like all our customers do), which means no waiting days for responses.

"We're talking directly in Slack. I really prefer that rather than having a portal and placing tickets. We work the same way inside JustWatch. It's like another department of our company sometimes - there's no difference in how we treat other departments and how we talk to Lightdash."

When JustWatch needed row-level security to onboard with Lightdash, they dropped a message in Slack and told us how critical this feature was. Within days, Lightdash shipped a first version.

Later, when they wanted more AI capabilities, it was the same story. Weekly calls, real-world feedback, fast iterations. Lightdash shipped exactly what they needed, exactly when they needed it.

What's next: The future of AI in BI

JustWatch wants to dive deep into the world of AI in BI. They're exploring Lightdash's Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, which lets generic AI agents directly access Lightdash data.

The AI operates within guardrails and the semantic layer provides consistency. Changes get reviewed and the data team maintains control while giving everyone freedom.

Want to see how AI agents could work for your team? 

AI in BI is all about giving your data team leverage. At JustWatch, data analysts spends less time answering basic questions and more time on architecture. 

With nearly full adoption across the company, JustWatch continues helping build the platform. Learn more about how JustWatch is using Lightdash here.

If you want to see similar results for your team, get in touch and start your free trial today.