May 2025

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What’s new in Data & AI at SAS Innovate 2025
Want to know all of the latest announcements and what’s new in SAS Viya? In this SAS Viya Release Highlights Show, we’re packing our bags and heading to Orlando to showcase the latest from SAS Innovate 2025 – SAS’ premier data and AI conference for data scientists, statisticians, data engineers, analysts, developers and C-level leaders.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to this edition of the SAS Tech Report, my very first as editor! I’m thrilled to take the helm, especially at such an exciting time for SAS and the broader tech community.

Earlier this month, I had the incredible opportunity to host the SAS Viya Release Highlights Show at SAS Innovate 2025 in Orlando, Florida. We interviewed some of the brightest minds in the field on topics such as SAS Data Maker, SAS Viya Workbench, SAS Models, and more.

One of the standout moments from the event was the announcement of a visionary partnership between SAS, Epic Games, and Georgia-Pacific. This collaboration is reimagining digital twins using Epic’s Unreal Engine to enhance worker safety and operational efficiency in manufacturing.

Everyone was a winner at SAS Innovate, but I specifically would like to congratulate the winners of the Customer Recognition Awards and the SAS Hackathon Grand Champion, Team Butterfly, who were celebrated at SAS Innovate. I encourage you to click those links and read more about their incredible accomplishments using SAS software.

If you missed out on SAS Innovate or would like to revisit your favorite sessions, on-demand content is now available at sas.com/digitalpass.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. I look forward to exploring the future of data, AI, and innovation with you in issues to come.

Happy reading!

Thiago De Souza

Editor, SAS Tech Report

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Tech tips with Chris

Last week I participated in an "Ask Me Anything" event for our SAS Analytics Explorers program. Dozens of members asked me questions about SAS products, my career here, and my thoughts on the future of AI. I tried my best to answer as many as I could. (Don't miss the next AMA event! Join SAS Analytics Explorers here.)

Here's one question I received, along with my honest answer:

Q: What’s your favorite, or most underrated SAS Procedure or function in your opinion?

A: My favorite PROC these days is PROC HTTP. I use it all of the time to gather data from other services using REST APIs. Using PROC HTTP and then the JSON libname engine to convert API responses to data, I can gather info from our community platform, Google Analytics, GitHub, and so many more services that my team relies on.

PROC SQL is my go-to for combining and manipulating data. I’m pretty good at writing SQL code that works the first time I run it, but I still use SAS Enterprise Guide to help me design more complex queries – then I copy that SQL for use in a production program.

Finally, I use PROC FREQ a lot for summarization and “top N” reporting. I’m not a statistician by training, so while I admire and respect the many analytical PROCs we have in SAS, I leave it to others to use them responsibly

What about you? I'd love to hear from you about your favorite SAS function or procedure (and why it's so great)! Tell me about it here.

Tips & tricks

SAS Tutorial | Creating a Custom Step, Part 2: Building the Graphical User Interface
Join Senior Analytic Training Consultant Danny Modlin in part two of this four-part SAS Studio tutorial, where he shows how to build a graphical user interface for a custom step. Along the way, Danny shares tips and techniques to maximize the usability of your custom steps.

Essential VS Code shortcuts every Python developer should know
This guide shares the top keyboard shortcuts to boost productivity in VSCode, especially when using SAS Viya Workbench with Python or SAS notebooks. It includes built-in commands for navigating and editing notebooks, plus instructions for creating custom shortcuts tailored to your coding workflow.

Python ML pipelines with Scikit-learn: A beginner’s guide
Using SAS Viya Workbench for efficient setup and execution, this beginner-friendly guide shows how Scikit-learn pipelines can streamline machine learning workflows and prevent common errors.

Taking Control of Models in SAS Visual Forecasting
Enhance high-value time series forecasts in SAS Visual Forecasting by using the Interactive Modeling node in Model Studio to customize models, apply business knowledge, and gain deeper insights beyond automated pipelines.

Comparing the SAS Job Execution Web Application, SAS Studio and jobExecution REST API endpoint
Explore the differences between the SAS Job Execution Web Application, SAS Studio, and the jobExecution REST API in SAS Viya to choose the best tool for your workflow whether you're a beginner, a developer, or building automated systems.

Stratified bootstrapping and when to use it
When your data includes small or important subgroups, stratified bootstrapping can yield more reliable results than standard resampling. In this DO Loop post, Rick Wicklin explains when to use it and shows how to implement it in SAS for better subgroup representation and more stable estimates.

Variable Selection Node: A Versatile Powerhouse for Feature Selection in Model Studio
Learn how the Variable Selection node in Model Studio streamlines feature selection by combining supervised and unsupervised methods to identify the most relevant inputs for predictive modeling.

Calculate the Gini-Simpson diversity index in SAS
The first part of this series explores the Gini-Simpson diversity index (a statistical measure recently adopted by the US Census Bureau) and shows how to compute it in SAS using Base SAS, PROC SQL, and SAS IML.

Visualize the Gini-Simpson diversity index
In the second part of this series on the Gini-Simpson diversity index, we visualize how diversity changes with different group sizes using SAS IML, highlighting how the index behaves when class sizes are balanced versus highly uneven.

Detecting lags in nonlinear time series with PROC TSSELECTLAG in SAS Viya
Accurately forecasting time-lagged relationships in epidemic data, such as the delay between infections and hospitalizations, is critical for public health planning. Find out how using distance correlation in SAS Viya’s PROC TSSELECTLAG offers a robust method for identifying these nonlinear lags more effectively than traditional Pearson correlation.

Use case

Predictive analytics and AI deliver a winning fan experience
Learn how the Orlando Magic uses mobile app data and SAS to personalize marketing campaigns and boost fan engagement.

See who’s changing the world through analytics
Congratulations to winners of the 2025 SAS Customer Recognition Awards and thank you to all who submitted an entry! Check out the complete list of winners.

For developers

SAS Bowl LII, SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript
The SAS Viya SDK for JavaScript is a collection of JavaScript libraries for interfacing with SAS Viya resources and embedding your SAS Viya content into custom web pages and corporate portals. We're covering the SDK for June's SAS Bowl. This series of SAS Communities articles will give you all the details:

User group news

Educators: Join us this summer for a week of virtual learning
From July 21-24, learn from SAS experts and educator peers about the latest in AI and analytics education. SAS Educate is free for faculty. Register today. Register now.

Western Users of SAS Software: Sept. 3-5 in Universal City, CA
The Call for Papers is now open. Be sure to submit your ideas and be part of the action in Universal City! Learn more.

Southeast SAS Users Group: Sept. 22-24 in Cary, NC
SESUG 2025 will be held at the beautiful headquarters of SAS. The call for abstracts is currently open. Learn more about submitting your proposal.

Midwest SAS Users Group: Oct. 5-7 in Cincinnati, OH
Details will be coming soon. Be sure to visit the updated website to stay in the loop. Learn more.

Upcoming learning events

(Each is one hour and complimentary.)

How Can the SAS Macro Language Enhance LLM Integration in SAS^® 9.4 for Clinical Programming?
Join Daiichi-Sankyo's Stephen McCawille at 10:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 3 to learn how Large Language Models (LLMs) – ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek, for example – can be seamlessly integrated into the SAS 9.4 environment. You will learn:

How to call and interact with LLMs using PROC HTTP in SAS.
How SAS Macro Language can be repurposed to dynamically structure prompts and automate AI-driven responses.
Techniques to refine and control LLM responses, ensuring they are relevant and useful for SAS-based workflows.

Getting the Most From the New Task Design Experience in Customer Intelligence 360
Join SAS' Sam Padda and Mark Chaves at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 10 to learn how to streamline your team’s campaign design process. We’ll show you how the new task design experience will maximize your efforts. You will learn how:

The new campaign task design experience is different, and why.
To manage creatives both within and outside of a campaign’s task.
To personalize your marketing content for your campaigns.
Best practice approaches to creating tasks to support your campaigns.

The Data Science Productivity Gains in the SAS^® Viya^® Modeling Experience
Join SAS' Robert Blanchard and Carlos Pinheiro at 11:00 a.m. ET on Tues., June 19 to learn how to streamline your model development process and enhance cross-team collaboration. You will learn about:

Auto-tuning multiple statistical and machine learning models.
An enhanced modeling approach and fine-tuning advanced ML algorithms.
Easily building sophisticated data visualizations.
Responsible AI, fairness, bias and interpretability.
A comprehensive approach to model assessment.
Extensive methods for model tournament and deployment.

AI Explained: Techniques and Tricks to Improve the Interpretability of Machine Learning Models
Join Farias Brito University's José Aragão Júnior at 11:00 a.m. ET on Thurs., June 26 to learn techniques for interpreting machine learning models and how to use them in SAS^® Viya^®. You will learn: