AI fabric: the real way to get more from your data

There are no two technologies that represent the future of enterprise better than data and artificial intelligence (AI). Every user and decision-maker is trying to implement a data and AI strategy that will propel them past the competition. The scramble for competitive edges and big breakthroughs has reached a fever pitch. But there’s a problem – once organisations and their leaders start getting down to the work of implementing data and AI, many quickly discover that it’s far easier said than done.

 

Don’t worry – it’s not just you. Creating a strong data and AI approach is hard. It can be overwhelming, especially if you can’t pinpoint what’s causing your biggest challenges. Most likely, the culprit is your cumbersome, inflexible data architecture. Luckily, there’s a solution borne fully from today’s data- and AI-driven world: AI fabric.

 

Data and AI together in harmony

 

AI fabric is an evolution of data fabric, which combines the best aspects of data warehouses and data lakes, traditional data storage and querying frameworks. AI fabrics go further by harmonising data fabrics with AI development and operationalisation tools.

 

This places a comprehensive semantic (natural language) layer atop data estates. This layer enhances context and reasoning, making natural language interactions with data more precise, eliminating ambiguity and providing real-world context. Enhancing models’ context, grounding and reasoning capabilities is the key to unlocking the full potential of generative AI applications.

 

AI fabrics are important because, for most organisations, AI development and deployment problems are actually data problems. Many organisations have a lot of data – but data is basically useless if it isn’t organised. By synthesising data and AI under one roof, everything is now available in once place – a single source of truth and insight. Woven together within the AI fabric, all users – not just data experts – can use and scale AI capabilities with confidence under a centralised governance model.

 

Knowledge graphs: powering contextual, precise AI

 

Though everyone wants to talk about data and AI, there’s a more niche technology that makes everything tick: knowledge graph technology. Knowledge graphs power the natural language layer, providing a powerful way to model and represent the meaning of data. Knowledge graphs also connect disparate data sources, help LLMs better understand context, and provide everything with a single source of truth, simplifying and streamlining data estates. They’re powerful because they ensure both people and gen AI models can understand and apply data and context – including information from older, previously siloed repositories.

 

Powered by knowledge graphs, AI fabrics open the door to all the AI functionalities your organisation is craving: automation, AI agents, chatbots, interfaces, dashboards, low- and no-code tools and more.

 

Activating the entire organisation

 

Ultimately, when one thinks of the future of enterprise – the future of data and AI – the goal is an organisation where everyone can draw on the power and continuity of its entire data estate. And ideally, you want this power without having to rip up your entire data infrastructure and replace it wholesale. Luckily for you, that’s yet another AI fabric calling card. The beauty of AI fabrics are their modularity and ability to fit seamlessly beside and atop existing data investments – with no overhaul necessary.

 

AI fabric implementation is great for many reasons, but primarily because it works with what you have, goes at your pace, and evolves as you evolve. This minimises disruption and facilitates AI adoption across teams and departments with varying levels of tech integration. Often, AI fabric implementation starts at the department level. From there, teams show off their hard work to others, who see what it can do and naturally want in. From there, the AI fabric expands organically and begins spanning the entire organisation – without needing to be an all-or-nothing effort.

 

Simply put, AI fabrics are the unsung hero fueling data and AI adoption and innovation around the world. They solve organisational data issues, inject AI directly into operations within a singular, governed platform, are modular and flexible and account for the existing investments you’ve made in your data systems and structures.

 

In short, AI fabric architecture is what all organisations need to truly unlock and activate data and AI excellence. Want to take your place at the forefront of the future of enterprise? Then it’s time to start your AI fabric journey today.

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To learn more about Altair and its AI fabric approach, visit altair.com/ai-fabric

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by Yeshwant Mummaneni, chief engineer of analytics, HPC, Altair One