Incorta unveils features as part of new focus on AI
The vendor's new AI-focused features include a Model Context Protocol layer for developing agents and prebuilt agentic AI capabilities to assist with specific tasks.
Incorta on Wednesday introduced a set of features aimed at furthering the vendor's newly introduced goal of providing customers with a data foundation for AI-driven analysis.
Incorta historically focused on providing data integration capabilities to feed analytics with its direct data mapping technology enabling users to connect data sources with business intelligence tools. However, during a user event in Saudi Arabia on Sept. 4, Incorta CEO Osama Elkady said the vendor will now focus on delivering agentic AI capabilities to customers so they can develop their own AI tools.
To support its new strategic direction, Incorta unveiled several features currently in preview, including NexusConnect and NexusWorklows, which are expected to be generally available by the end of 2025.
NexusConnect is a Model Context Protocol layer to help users develop agents that draw training data from disparate sources, including large language models. NexusWorkflows are agentic AI-powered systems, such as extract, transform and load pipelines, that execute tasks on behalf of users.
The new capabilities collectively represent a significant update for Incorta's customers because they address the vendor's newly stated goal, according to Mike Leone, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia.
"This is definitely a big leap forward for Incorta's customers," he said. "With new features like NexusConnect and NexusWorkflows, Incorta is helping customers more easily unify data, automate decision-making and act on insights in real time. … They're definitely taking meaningful strides toward transforming how businesses approach decision intelligence."
Based in Foster City, Calif., Incorta is a unified data management and data analysis vendor that competes with companies such as Alteryx, Domo, Qlik and Tableau that also provide unified platforms.
New capabilities
Three years after OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT marked substantial improvement in generative AI (GenAI) technology, enterprises continue to increase their investments in AI development.
This is definitely a big leap forward for Incorta's customers. With new features like NexusConnect and NexusWorkflows, Incorta is helping customers more easily unify data, automate decision-making and act on insights in real time.
Mike LeoneAnalyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
In response, many data management and analytics vendors have shifted much of their attention to provide tools that enable customers to use their proprietary data to build AI applications that understand their business. In addition, the vendors have developed AI-powered capabilities of their own that streamline and simplify using their platforms.
Databricks and Snowflake have been among the most aggressive in building ecosystems that enable AI development with many others -- from tech giants AWS and Google to specialists such as Domo and Informatica -- also making AI their focus.
Now, Incorta is doing the same with a new focus and adding functionality to provide value to its customers, according to Matt Aslett, an analyst at ISG Research.
"The combination of capabilities announced by Incorta represents a significant acceleration of the company's ability to support applications infused with agentic AI," he said.
In addition, Incorta's pre-existing direct-mapping capabilities complement the new direction and feature set, Aslett continued.
"Incorta has long been focused on streamlining and accelerating the data analytics process with its direct data mapping functionality, which is designed to pre-process data from business applications … and accelerate query performance without the need for upfront data modelling, transformation and optimization," he said.
Meanwhile, Incorta's evolution was fueled by customer feedback in conjunction with the vendor's recognition of market trends, according to Ashwin Warrier, vice president and head of product at Incorta.
"The impetus was a combination of feedback from Incorta customers, evolving market dynamics -- including consolidation and convergence in the data and analytics space -- and the disruptive impact of generative AI, which has effectively reset the playing field," he said. "Extending our capabilities with … agentic workflows and applications is a natural evolution."
In addition to NexusConnect and NexusWorkflows, Incorta's new features include the following:
NexusAnalytics, which embeds AI-powered intelligence, such as natural language query, in traditional analytics dashboards.
Prebuilt agents for tasks such as financial operations and planning called Nexus Agents for Intelligence, Decision and Action (NexusAIDA).
NexusHub, a marketplace where Incorta partners and customers can build and monetize agents.
While each of the new features provides potential value, NexusConnect and NexusWorkflows will likely have the most impact for Incorta customers, according to Leone.
"NexusConnect's focus on breaking down data silos is critical because … fragmented data is a persistent pain point for businesses," he said. "NexusWorkflows stands out for its potential to redefine how users interact with their data, turning passive insights into proactive actions. Together, [their] potential to fundamentally shift how decisions are made is compelling."
Aslett, meanwhile, highlighted NexusAIDA, noting that prebuilt agents for specific tasks could help Incorta stand apart from its competition despite most data management and analytics vendors now making agentic AI their focus.
"Although the company competes with well-established analytics database providers, it is differentiated by its capabilities, for example in enabling self-service and real-time analysis of financial and operational data," he said. "This focus is reflected by its NexusAIDA agents … as well as its focus on enabling and facilitating business workflows."
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Next steps
With an initial set of features aligned with its new goal now in preview, Incorta's product development plan for the rest of 2025 is to improve the performance of the new Nexus features to make them generally available, according to Warrier.
"Our focus [is] to deepen and scale support for the newly announced feature set across our growing customer base and to validate and move early preview features to general availability by yearend," he said.
While a focus on the new features is important, Incorta does not have as big a profile as many of its competitors, according to Aslett. For example, from a financial perspective, Incorta has raised around $200 million in funding since being founded in 2013, whereas competitors such as Alteryx, Qlik and Tableau were each acquired for billions of dollars. Domo has raised over $700 million in funding.
As a result, Aslett noted that investing in a strategy to increase its recognizability would be wise.
"While Incorta is well-differentiated, the company is not widely known and could raise its profile [to increase] understanding of the value and potential benefits of its architecture and approach," Aslett said.
Leone, while saying that Incorta is among the more innovative data management and analysis-focused vendors, suggested the vendor work to ensure that its capabilities integrate with other systems enterprises deploy as part of their technology infrastructure.
"While they're advanced in areas like real-time data processing and workflow automation, I think their success hinges on how well they can scale and integrate with existing enterprise systems," he said. "Continuing to focus on ease of use and scalability is key for them to maintain their position in the market, in which they still have a lot of room to grow."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.