Data intelligence isn't just a buzzword

Data intelligence in action

Dashboards, reports and warehouses have value, but they are rearview mirrors telling you what happened rather than what's next. Data intelligence changes the game by unifying all the disparate signals across the organization into a living, breathing system of awareness.

Consider what it means when structured transactional data can speak to unstructured text documents, when metadata provides the connective tissue across applications, and when vectorized data can make search and discovery feel intuitive, contextual, and proactive. Suddenly, information doesn't just sit idle—it acts, it anticipates, it informs.

How tech vendors are responding

We're already seeing AI platform providers across the data ecosystem laying the groundwork for this future. Glean, for example, is building organizational graphs that map not only content but context: who knows what, how information flows, and where intelligence lives across a company. This is not just search; it's a blueprint of organizational memory and expertise.

Anomalo, meanwhile, is tackling one of the hardest problems in data intelligence by focusing on the health of unstructured data. If data is the fuel, Anomalo ensures that it is clean, consistent, and trustworthy before it drives the machine.

Then there's CData, which has quietly become a critical player by enabling seamless connectivity across hundreds of data sources—effectively making sure that no data, no matter how siloed, is left out of the intelligence equation. Qlik, with its strong heritage in analytics, is pushing the boundary by operationalizing these insights, helping businesses not just see their data, but activate it in real time.

Together, these players represent more than specialized tools—they are the building blocks of an intelligent organization, one that is not paralyzed by the complexity of multiple data types and sources but is empowered by their convergence.

The future of data intelligence

Imagine a single organizational nervous system where structured sales data interacts with call center transcripts, marketing content is enriched by product telemetry, and video training materials can be surfaced contextually through vectorized embeddings. This is not science fiction—it's where data intelligence is heading.

Why does it matter? Because in the next wave of business transformation, the winners will not be those who simply have the most data, but those who have the most intelligent data. The organizations that can connect the dots across all forms of information—structured and unstructured, human and machine-generated, transactional and behavioral—will see around corners and act with foresight rather than hindsight.

Data intelligence is not just about better decision-making; it's about reshaping how organizations learn, adapt, and create value. In a world of accelerating change, intelligence is the ultimate competitive advantage. And that is why it matters.

Stephen Catanzano is a senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia, where he covers data management and analytics.

Enterprise Strategy Group is part of Omdia. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.