New Snowflake suite simplifies data, AI for energy sector
Energy Solutions joins the vendor's spate of industry-specific offerings and includes partner-built applications and pre-modeled datasets that accelerate data-driven initiatives.
Snowflake on Tuesday introduced Energy Solutions, a suite of capabilities aimed at making it easier for enterprises in the energy sector to manage data and develop AI applications than when using the vendor's general-purpose platform.
In addition to features available to all Snowflake users such as Snowflake Intelligence -- an agent that enables data exploration and analysis using natural langue -- and the vendor's Cortex AI development environment, Energy Solutions includes data and AI governance capabilities, more than 30 partner-developed applications that users can adopt, and industry-specific datasets.
Snowflake first launched industry-specific capabilities in 2021 when it released the Financial Services Data Cloud. Since then, it has added eight more industry-specific offerings, including targeted suites for the financial services, manufacturing and technology sectors, among others.
Given that packaged capabilities geared toward specific industries make it easier for enterprises to manage their data and develop data-informed applications than general-purpose platforms, Snowflake's Energy Solutions is significant, according to Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget.
"Industry-specific platforms are just better at solving the exact problems a sector faces," he said. "There may be a trend building for AI industry-specific stories. [Energy Solutions] comes with the right tools, integrations and data already built in, so companies don't have to spend as much time customizing things. It's faster, easier, and more effective than trying to make a general-purpose platform fit."
Based in Bozeman, Mont., but with no central headquarters, Snowflake is a data management vendor that, like many of its peers, has added AI development capabilities over the past few years. Recently, the vendor made Google's Gemini 3 model available in Cortex AI to provide users with a new large language model to choose from when building AI tools.
Energy boost
As enterprises increasingly invest in developing agents and other AI tools, a strong data foundation is critical. Without discoverable, relevant, high-quality data, AI initiatives are doomed.
Industry-specific platforms are just better at solving the exact problems a sector faces. There may be a trend building for AI industry-specific stories. [Energy Solutions] comes with the right tools, integrations and data already built in, so companies don't have to spend as much time customizing things.
Stephen CatanzanoAnalyst, Omdia
While Snowflake's general-purpose platform is designed to help organizations effectively manage their data and build data-informed applications, data management and AI development are still complex processes. Industry-specific offerings, while not eliminating complexity, ease some of the difficulties enterprises face when trying to organize billions of data points and develop AI-powered applications that need to be accurate to be trusted.
Snowflake is not the only data management vendor to provide targeted versions of their platforms. Rival Databricks similarly provides users in industries such as telecom and healthcare with prepackaged tools geared toward particular sectors. In addition, SAS and SAP are among the vendors offering industry-specific capabilities.
While Snowflake has been providing specialized offerings geared toward different sectors for five years, the impetus for developing Energy Solutions came from customer feedback, according to Fred Cohagan, the vendor's global head of energy.
"As supply and demand conditions change more frequently and unpredictably, customers tell us they need a secure, governed data foundation that supports real operational workflows -- not just analytics or AI pilots -- so teams can make faster, more reliable decisions," he said. "These new solutions are designed to … create greater value over time as customers expand use cases."
Regarding the reason Snowflake chose the energy sector for its latest targeted offering, the data-intensive nature of the energy industry made it a good candidate, Cohagan continued.
"Energy is one of the most data-intensive and mission-critical industries in the world -- it underpins nearly every economy and sector," he said. "There is decades of operational, engineering, and business data spread across systems, which makes energy a natural fit for Snowflake's ability to bring that data together in a governed way so energy companies can apply AI reliably and responsibly at scale."
Collectively, the capabilities that comprise Energy Solutions are designed to enable Snowflake customers in the oil and gas, power, and utilities industries to build data foundations by securely connecting data across IT, operational technology and IoT systems. Once integrated and organized, the data foundations can be used to develop trustworthy AI tools, including those aimed at progressing toward more reliable energy solutions and a lower-carbon future.
Because industry-specific offerings simplify data management and AI development, Kevin Petrie, an analyst at BARC U.S., like Catanzano lauded their value.
"To gain real competitive advantage with AI, organizations must apply advanced models to their proprietary business processes and datasets," he said. "Industry-specific solutions help achieve this by streamlining integration work and enabling AI adopters to get into production faster."
Regarding a targeted offering's value to the energy sector, Petrie noted that enterprises in the industry tend to be slower to adopt cutting-edge technologies than those in some other industries. As a result, Energy Solutions will serve as an AI accelerator for Snowflake customers.
"The energy sector is not typically an early adopter of new technologies such as AI," Petrie said. "This solution will reduce the level of in-house expertise they need to make AI projects feasible and to reach production."
While serving to accelerate AI development in a sector slower than some others to evolve, the individual component of Energy Solutions that will perhaps be most significant toward that end will be its consolidation of complex data, according to Catanzano.
"The biggest win is how it brings all kinds of data like IT, OT and IoT, into one place and makes it easy to analyze," he said. "That means companies can use AI and advanced tools to make smarter decisions, save money, and improve reliability."
Regarding potential differentiation, Catanzano added that, while Energy Solutions is a valuable addition for Snowflake users, other vendors also offer suites targeted at the energy sector. However, the data unification capabilities and inclusion of partner-built applications could help Snowflake stand out.
"What makes Snowflake different is how it focuses on unifying all the data types and its strong ecosystem of partners that bring extra functionality," Catanzano said. "I haven't seen as much of this with the others."
Next steps
As Snowflake makes its product development plans, helping customers reliably operationalize data and AI is the vendor's guiding principle, according to Cohagan.
"That includes continued platform innovation and working closely with partners to support real-world operational use cases across industries," he said.
Beyond continuing to add more industry-specific offerings and refining those it already provides, Snowflake could serve the needs of current users and potentially attract news ones by providing a broader array of advanced AI tools, according to Catanzano.
"Adding more advanced AI tools or tighter integrations with operational systems like SCADA would be smart moves," he said. "Partnering with more startups and industry leaders could also help them stay ahead of the game."
Petrie similarly suggested that Snowflake partner with third parties to add AI expertise that can be passed on to customers.
"BARC research shows that organizations are looking outside for AI expertise," he said. "In fact, they are more satisfied with the AI contributions of vendors and consultants than they are with their own IT departments. Given this, I'd recommend that Snowflake deepen and extend its partnerships with consulting firms."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than three decades of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
