{"id":2952560,"date":"2026-01-12T09:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=2952560"},"modified":"2026-01-12T09:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:10:56","slug":"mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/geoai\/mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant","title":{"rendered":"Mastering field calculations with the Arcade assistant"},"author":412218,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[770712,777102],"tags":[780845,32551,33371],"industry":[],"product":[36551],"class_list":["post-2952560","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geoai","category-arcade","tag-ai-assistant","tag-arcade","tag-map-viewer","product-arcgis-online"],"acf":{"authors":[{"ID":412218,"user_firstname":"Jett","user_lastname":"Legacion","nickname":"Jett Legacion","user_nicename":"jlegacion","display_name":"Jett Legacion","user_email":"jlegacion@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2025-10-13 21:20:26","user_description":"Jett is an Associate Product Marketing Manager for Esri's AI assistants and AI agents. She brings GIS and business experience from her studies at the University of Redlands, and loves tackling challenges. Outside the office she enjoys piano, golf, video games, and skating.","user_avatar":""}],"short_description":"Creating essential Arcade expressions has become even more intuitive with the ArcGIS Arcade assistant (beta) by your side.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

For those looking to streamline their data management and analysis in ArcGIS, the Calculate fields tool<\/strong> is a familiar ally because it enables you to create new insights from existing data. For example, the tool helps when your dataset is missing a value that needs to be derived from other fields. If you want to know population growth but only have population numbers and years, you can create a field for growth percentage and use the tool to automatically calculate it, saving you from doing each calculation manually.<\/p>\n

The real benefit comes after the calculation. You can classify or symbolize your data based on these new values, uncovering patterns, trends, and relationships that weren’t visible before. This turns raw data into actionable insights and helps tell a more compelling story.<\/p>\n

And now, creating the essential Arcade expressions that power the\u00a0Calculate Fields tool\u00a0has become even more intuitive with the ArcGIS Arcade assistant (beta)<\/strong> by your side. These expressions are what allow you to populate fields with calculated values. Unsure about your Arcade skills? No problem because the assistant takes in your natural language prompts and builds Arcade expressions for you, lowering the learning curve and allowing you to focus on your goals.<\/p>\n

Knowing this, how can you prompt the assistant to accurately give you the expressions you need to complete your tasks? Let\u2019s look at a couple real-world examples and prompts you can use to solve challenges.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","content":"

Note<\/strong>: To access the Arcade assistant, you must be logged into your ArcGIS Online account and have assistants enabled<\/a>. To use \u201ccalculate field\u201d on attribute data, you must also be the layer owner or organization administrator.<\/p>\n","image_reference":false,"layout":"standard","image_reference_figure":"","snippet":"","spotlight_name":"","section_title":"","position":"Right","spotlight_image":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

<\/h2>\n

Example 1: Population growth analysis<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Problem<\/strong>: Your department needs to analyze population changes across different countries to determine which areas are experiencing the fastest growth. You have population data from 2022, 2020, 2015, 2010, and all the way down to 1970 in 5-year increments. However, you only need to calculate the change and growth rate between the years 2022 and 2020.<\/p>\n

Approach<\/strong>: Use the assistant to generate Arcade expressions to help you calculate the growth rate. you can also ask the assistant to help you classify. More on this below.<\/p>\n

In Map Viewer, you have a world polygon layer that contains population data. This layer\u2019s attribute table is where you will access the assistant to calculate fields. Let\u2019s open up the table.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2953376,"id":2953376,"title":"Image 1_Show table","filename":"Image-1_Show-table.png","filesize":696772,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/geoai\/mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant\/image-1_show-table","alt":"","author":"412218","description":"","caption":"Note: Click the images across the article for expanded view","name":"image-1_show-table","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2952560,"date":"2026-01-07 19:28:50","modified":"2026-01-09 23:44:55","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1917,"height":952,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":230,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":381,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","large-width":1917,"large-height":952,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table-1536x763.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":763,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","2048x2048-width":1917,"2048x2048-height":952,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table-826x410.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":410,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png","wide_image-width":1917,"wide_image-height":952}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-1_Show-table.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

From here, let\u2019s create a new field for the growth rate, since the table currently does not have one. To do this, we\u2019ll first navigate to the \u201cFields\u201d button and then click \u201cAdd field\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2953378,"id":2953378,"title":"Image 2_Add Field","filename":"Image-2_Add-Field.png","filesize":459388,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/geoai\/mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant\/image-2_add-field","alt":"","author":"412218","description":"","caption":"","name":"image-2_add-field","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2952560,"date":"2026-01-07 19:31:45","modified":"2026-01-09 21:55:26","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1932,"height":959,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":230,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":381,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":953,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field-1536x762.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":762,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png","2048x2048-width":1932,"2048x2048-height":959,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field-826x410.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":410,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field-1920x953.png","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":953}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-2_Add-Field.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

In the currently empty field (Growth Rate) that we just created, we\u2019re going to click the 3 horizontal dots and press \u201cCalculate field\u201d. From there, you\u2019ll have the option to choose between Arcade and SQL. In this case, you want to select Arcade (for the Arcade assistant). You can also choose to filter your data to the portion you want to calculate on. However, this is optional. Click \u201cNext\u201d on the bottom right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2953381,"id":2953381,"title":"Image 3_ Calculate field","filename":"Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","filesize":459663,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/geoai\/mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant\/image-3_-calculate-field","alt":"","author":"412218","description":"","caption":"","name":"image-3_-calculate-field","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2952560,"date":"2026-01-07 19:37:27","modified":"2026-01-09 21:55:36","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":958,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":383,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":958,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field-1536x766.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":766,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":958,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field-826x412.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":412,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":958}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-3_-Calculate-field.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Once we reach the Arcade expression editor, we can find the assistant by clicking the Arcade assistant button. Now we\u2019re ready to prompt.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2953384,"id":2953384,"title":"Image 4_Arcade Assistant Button","filename":"Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","filesize":252487,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-online\/geoai\/mastering-field-calculations-with-the-ai-arcade-assistant\/image-4_arcade-assistant-button","alt":"","author":"412218","description":"","caption":"","name":"image-4_arcade-assistant-button","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2952560,"date":"2026-01-07 19:41:47","modified":"2026-01-10 00:46:22","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":958,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":383,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","large-width":1920,"large-height":958,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button-1536x766.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":766,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":958,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button-826x412.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":412,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png","wide_image-width":1920,"wide_image-height":958}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Image-4_Arcade-Assistant-Button.png"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

 <\/p>\n

Prompt tips :<\/strong><\/p>\n