What’s New in Cognos Analytics 12.1.1

November 3, 2025

IBM has officially released Cognos Analytics 12.1.1, delivering upgraded theming controls, improved dashboard flexibility, easier data export, and enhanced automation for live reporting environments. These improvements help teams work smarter, support accessibility and mobility, and pave the way for an AI-assisted future.

Table of Contents

Highlights from the 12.1.1 Release 

New theming controls 
More flexibility to adjust colors and UI elements so dashboards and reports better match your organization’s branding and accessibility needs. 

Auto-refresh for reports 
Perfect for displays in boardrooms or operations centers, which are meant to convey info without manual action. This feature update allows you to set reports to refresh automatically using the new refreshTimer parameter. 

Hide dashboard filter panels 
Not every dashboard needs the filter area. Now you can hide it (per tab or all tabs) to maximize screen space and simplify the consumer experience. 

Export visualization data to CSV 
Give consumers more self-service power with a one-click export option. The new ‘allow users access to data’ option (for dashboards or reports that contain visualizations) puts an export to CSV icon on the toolbar. 

Responsive dashboard layout 
A new layout engine makes it easier to design dashboards that look great on any device, from large displays to mobile phones. 

Bookmarks & saved dashboard views 
Authors can bookmark views of dashboards for their consumers and save them within dashboards for easy consumption (think filters, brushing, focus, tab, etc.).  

Consumers can save a specific view of the dashboard (like a virtual pointer). This option is much like a report view.  

For the full release notes, visit: 
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.1.x?topic=121x-release-1211-october-2025 

Key Items On the Radar for Upcoming Releases: 

IBM’s roadmap continues to strengthen AI capabilities, governance, and usability across Cognos Analytics: 

Agentic AI infused throughout the workflow 
Expect more intelligent automation inside the Cognos Assistant and across the suite, including vendor-flexible agent integrations and bring-your-own-LLM integration. 

• Recommendation Agent – surfaces insights you didn’t know to look for 

• Summarization Agent – distils complex data into clear, actionable narrative 

• Sharing Agent – intelligently routes reports to the right people, securely 

• Authoring Agent – converts natural language into polished reports 

Event Studio updates and deeper integration 
Modernized experience and alignment with data modules for greater consistency. 

Prompt UI & custom control enhancements 
Streamlined prompts and more modern custom component support. 

• Better hierarchy interactions – expand/collapse options in crosstabs using relational sources 

• Pop-up detail windows – view more context without drilling through 

• Filter and prompt space improvements – more real estate for the data itself 

Conclusion 

With the pace of change to the core product, it is important to stay up to date with new releases and keep up. How quickly you actually adopt upgrades depends on a lot of factors, in large part specific to your own organization’s risk tolerance, available resources, and quality of new releases. You can depend on us to help keep you up to date on the good, the bad, and the ugly.  

If you have any questions regarding the new features of 12.1.1, or need help with your Cognos upgrade, contact us today! 

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