In the modern age of big data, it’s essential to have powerful data discovery tools in your software stack. More and more businesses are making the jump to AI-powered data catalogs due to the numerous benefits they offer over manual data discovery processes. In this blog, we’ll be going over what these benefits are and how Secoda can help you automate your data discovery processes to reap these benefits yourself. Read on to learn more or click here to get started with your Secoda demo.
What is an AI Data Catalog?
First, a brief definition of what an AI data catalog is. We already know how basic data catalogs help organizations to organize their data assets, making them easier to access for data discovery and data governance processes. With an AI data catalog, you leverage the power of artificial intelligence technology to automate many of the inefficient processes of traditional data catalogs while also making data discovery more accessible for members of your organization as a whole.
An AI data catalog still acts as a centralized repository for your data assets, but it can automatically index and categorize data for you. Your AI data catalog will use machine learning algorithms to continuously learn and improve how it processes your organization’s individual data assets. In short, AI data catalogs not only make your processes more efficient, but it also helps to create a more enriched, useful data catalog that your team can use to gain more in-depth data insights. In today’s data-driven world, a traditional data catalog just isn’t a competitive solution and won’t give you the edge you need.<p>
What Are the Benefits?
Now that we understand how an AI data catalog works, let’s take a look at some of the primary benefits it offers.
Improved Data Discovery
One of the primary functions of a data catalog is to enable data discovery. Data discovery allows your team members to gain valuable insights from the data you collect, allowing them to make informed, data-driven decisions. However, traditional data discovery methods can be tedious at best and it’s not always easy to get in-depth results from your discovery efforts. This is where AI-powered data catalogs can help.
AI data catalogs make it so your team doesn’t have to manually search through countless data sources to find what they need. It also makes searching for data results as simple as doing a Google search, democratizing your data and making it more accessible to every team. This means more team members can find data insights in a fraction of the time. When your team can always rely on your data catalog for in-depth insights, you’ll see improved data discovery overall and more decisions being made from the data you collect.
AI data catalogs are also continually adapting, updating your data assets as they’re changed elsewhere in the organization. This means your centralized repository of data will always be up-to-date and accurate, so your team members know they can rely on the data they’re finding. This, in turn, reduces costly errors and data inconsistencies.
Saves Time and Is Cost Efficient
Of course, one of the biggest benefits of an AI data catalog is the time and cost savings. As we’ve established, many of the manual tasks of traditional data discovery can be eliminated with an AI-powered data catalog. Without these tedious and labor-intensive tasks on their plates, your team members can focus on analysis, strategy, and other big picture tasks.
Of course, more productivity and reduced time spent on tedious tasks means that you also see cost-savings. AI data catalogs can also mitigate the risk for human error, meaning you spend less time fixing data catalog issues and inconsistencies. Although the cost of implementing an AI data catalog may be more than a more traditional catalog, the cost savings and productivity over time more than make up for any up-front expenses.
Work Faster With Automation
Automation allows your organization to streamline processes that typically may take hours or even days of work when done manually. Tasks such as data tagging, indexing, categorization and more can all be done in a fraction of the time, which frees up your employees for the aforementioned strategic work that adds value to your business.
Automation also helps with data integrity and consistency, so you worry less about data inconsistencies and silos in your organizations. This means a more reliable and trustworthy data catalog without having to add hours of data governance workload to your data team.
Ultimately, this also leads to better employee satisfaction as well. Most team members don’t enjoy spending hours on tedious manual tasks and would rather focus on strategy. When you automate these tasks, they can do the work they enjoy most.
Supports Scalability
It’s best to have software tools that can scale as your business grows. Trying to switch to new systems because your previous platforms can’t keep up is far from ideal, and can slow growth. Fortunately, AI-powered data catalogs excel in the scalability department.
AI data catalogs are designed to handle big data and can easily scale with your business as needed. Your catalog will seamlessly adapt to your growing data processes without sacrificing performance or accuracy.<p>
Decreases IT Requests
Data discovery is traditionally a process that is heavily reliant on the IT department. When a non-technical team member needs data insights, they typically would have to make a request to the data team. This can quickly overwhelm your IT department with results, leading to bottlenecks, delays, and frustration for both the IT team and other departments.
An AI data catalog is a direct solution to this problem. With an AI data catalog, you can democratize your data and make it easy for any team member to search for data assets and get in-depth insights without having to rely on the IT team. AI data catalogs empower every member of your organization to make the most of the data available to them with self-serve analytics. Platforms like Secoda, for instance, have Chat-GPT search functionality that allows them to search for data the same way they would make a Google search. They can also get smart suggestions to help them get better data insights and analysis. This frees up the IT team by drastically reducing data requests and it allows your other team members to feel more empowered to make data-driven decisions on their own.
Fosters Collaboration
AI-enabled data democratization also fosters collaboration in the workplace. When your team members can also access and use data, they can more easily collaborate with other departments on their findings and drive collaborative cross-department decision-making.
Additionally, data catalogs provide a centralized repository for data and AI ensures these data assets are always updated to reflect the latest changes. This ensures that everyone is working from the same information and data sets, so there are fewer inconsistencies and data silos.
In short, AI data catalogs make it easier to share data insights, collaborate on projects, and make data-driven decisions together. With enhanced collaboration, your business can see improved efficiency, decision-making, and creativity overall. You can leave data barriers behind and create the most collaborative workplace possible.
Enhanced Data Security
Data security is always a top concern for any organization. AI-powered data catalogs can help here too. With an improved data catalog, your organization will also have better data governance.
Of course, an AI data catalog will have the encryption and authentication you would expect from a data software platform, but you can also utilize built-in access controls and permission settings to further fine-tune who can access data. This allows you to have a clear delineation of data stewards in your organization and mitigate risk for unauthorized access.
Additionally, AI data catalogs have advanced auditing and tracking capabilities. You will have clear logs of data lineage and usage, so you can adhere to your industry regulations and remain compliant.<p>
How AI Is Changing the Future of Data
AI is still a rapidly growing technology, and it has many exciting implications for the future of data and data discovery. It has already revolutionized many aspects of business, and is undoubtedly going to continue to do so in the future. In order to remain competitive, it’s important to keep up to date with these trends and how businesses are implementing them in their data processes. Here are a few ways that AI will be changing the data landscape:
- Streamlining business processes - AI and machine learning could still be considered in their fledgling stages, and the technology is just now becoming mainstream. As AI and machine learning continues to advance, it will only continue to make business processes more streamlined and efficient. While automation can cover basic tasks already, we likely will see AI be capable of taking on more advanced tasks, freeing up team members even more to focus on the big picture and strategic work that advances a business forward.
- Unlocking data’s potential - The capabilities of AI go beyond just efficiency. AI will enable businesses to unlock the true potential of their data, allowing them to get the most advanced insights possible. With the power of AI, businesses will be able to uncover trends and patterns in data like never before.
- Exciting breakthroughs - Since AI will allow human team members to focus on creativity and innovation, there will be more exciting breakthroughs and advancements in numerous fields of industry.
Overall, AI is changing the future of data by empowering businesses to leverage the full potential of their information. It's an exciting time to be in the world of data, and AI-powered data catalogs are leading the way towards a more efficient, collaborative, and innovative future.
Learn More About Secoda AI
If you want to reap all the above benefits of AI-powered data catalogs, then Secoda AI is your solution. Our data catalog includes features like a ChatGPT-powered search for intuitive and in-depth data discovery. Secoda also helps you to automate numerous data discovery tasks, making your team more efficient and saving your IT team from getting overwhelmed with requests. If you’re interested in AI for your data discovery, now is the best time to get started.
Try Secoda for Free
<p>Secoda is an all-in-one data management platform for data discovery, data search, data cataloging, data lineage, and more. If you want a platform that can help you unlock your company’s data and that can scale with your business, choose Secoda. If you’re ready to learn more, try Secoda for free and book your demo today!<p>
