Actian, a division of HCLSoftware, has announced significant enhancements to its Actian Data Intelligence Platform, introducing a "data contract first" approach to embed governance and ensure data reliability from source to consumption. These updates, launched on June 24, 2025, aim to support enterprises in building trustworthy data foundations for AI implementations.
Actian Data Intelligence Platform embeds data contracts in workflows.
"Data contract first" approach ensures governance from data creation.
Enhances data reliability for AI with automated quality controls.
Features Ask AI for natural language data queries (in private preview).
Supports decentralized data ownership and enterprise data marketplace.
Integrates with CI/CD pipelines for streamlined data product updates.
Actian’s platform now integrates data contracts directly into development workflows, enforcing compliance and quality checks early in the data lifecycle. “By incorporating these controls directly into data pipelines, the Actian Data Intelligence Platform is designed to enable enterprises to scale to data democratization safely,” said Matt Aslett, Director of Research at ISG Software Research. This shift-left approach reduces downstream errors, ensuring reliable AI outcomes and lower compliance risks.
With enterprises increasingly adopting distributed data architectures, Actian’s platform facilitates data products—well-documented, domain-specific datasets published to an enterprise data marketplace. ISG Software Research predicts that by 2027, over 60% of enterprises will adopt such technologies. Dedicated APIs automate data product registration within CI/CD pipelines, minimizing manual efforts and keeping catalogs current.
The platform promotes decentralized data ownership, enabling collaboration across business and IT teams. “The challenge of decentralized environments isn’t just managing data across domains—it’s ensuring quality and governance at scale,” said Emma McGrattan, CTO at Actian. A federated knowledge graph-powered search engine delivers context-aware results, while transparent access request workflows maintain compliance with clear audit trails.
Actian’s new Ask AI feature, currently in private preview, allows users to query data using natural language, leveraging the organization’s glossary for relevant results. This capability lowers technical barriers, accelerating self-service analytics and making data accessible to non-technical users, further enhancing data democratization.
Combined with Actian Data Observability, the platform ensures data products adhere to contracts, providing full data lineage visibility and quality metrics. This integration supports AI-ready data by proactively addressing quality issues, fostering trust, and enabling faster time-to-insight for analytics and AI initiatives.
Actian’s enhancements position it as a leader in data intelligence, empowering enterprises to manage distributed data with confidence. The new features, including data contracts and Ask AI, are available immediately.
Actian empowers enterprises to confidently manage and govern data at scale. Actian data management and data intelligence solutions help streamline complex data environments and accelerate the delivery of AI-ready data. Designed to be flexible, Actian solutions integrate seamlessly and perform reliably across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments.
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