Apps Script + AI with BigQuery: What’s New in Looker Studio, Sheets & BigQuery

Explore Looker Studio, Google Sheets, BigQuery and AI-powered Apps Script automation in this online community meetup on 29 August 2026 at 7:00 PM. Hosted by Rif K. and Damilare A. for the Lagos Looker, BigQuery & AI Agents Meetup, this two-session event combines a practical update on Google’s data tools with a deeper technical demonstration of local Apps Script execution, BigQuery integration and AI-driven automation. The programme also includes an open call for people interested in speaking at future meetups. ## What’s new in Google’s data stack In the opening 25-minute session, Google Developer Expert Rif Kiamil will review key features and changes introduced during the previous six months of 2026 across: - Looker Studio and Data Studio - Google Sheets - BigQuery Expect practical examples and ideas for connecting these tools across reporting, analysis, dashboards and wider data workflows. This is a useful opportunity to catch up on recent developments and understand where new capabilities may fit into day-to-day BI and analytics work. ## Apps Script, BigQuery and AI automation The 45-minute second session is led by Bruce McPherson, author of O’Reilly’s Going GAS: From VBA to Google Apps Script and creator of training courses for beginner and developer-level Apps Script users. Formerly head of architecture and IT engineering at Motorola and Lucent Technologies, Bruce will examine how Apps Script has developed from a macro language into a substantial development platform. Using Gassypedia data drawn from more than 1.4 billion GitHub files, the talk will explore an ecosystem spanning over 6,000 developers, 11,000 repositories and 18,000 published Apps Script projects. Bruce will then introduce gas-fakes, an emulation layer that runs familiar Apps Script code natively on Node.js. The demonstration will cover: - High-speed local debugging and execution - Integration with BigQuery - Secure, sandboxed Apps Script execution - Multi-cloud automation using Apps Script as a shared “lingua franca” - Combining local AI models with Gemini to reduce token usage and cost - Using the Gassypedia BigQuery dataset and Looker reports to examine the wider ecosystem ## Who should attend?… Register for this event