Dive Brief:
- AI data cloud vendor Snowflake is leading the Open Semantic Interchange (OSI), a multi-stakeholder initiative to create a vendor-neutral, open source data framework standardizing how semantic metadata – which adds valuable context to data – is shared across tools and platforms.
- Mistral AI, BlackRock, Dbt Labs, Salesforce, Sigma and RelationalAI also joined the initiative, according to a Tuesday announcement. OSI’s goal is to create a common framework for companies to standardize conflicting data definitions, which make it difficult for both humans and AI tools to analyze data from various AI and business intelligence applications.
- “This initiative reflects the industry coming together, not competing, to solve shared challenges and build a more connected, open ecosystem for all,” Christian Kleinerman, EVP of product at Snowflake, said in a release accompanying the announcement.
Dive Insight:
The initiative is the latest example of cross-sector collaboration in the tech industry, as companies work to create common standards for AI and data to improve the technology’s business value.
Earlier this year, Microsoft joined more than 50 technology partners in supporting Google’s Agent2Agent interoperability protocol for AI agents. In another instance, the Fintech Open Source Foundation launched an effort to create vendor-neutral standards for AI services alongside banking giants like Citi and Morgan Stanley and hyperscalers Microsoft, AWS and Google Cloud.
Snowflake’s collaborative standardization effort addresses an issue that has lingered for CIOs, CTOs and chief data and analytics officers, Gartner Senior Director Analyst Yogesh Bhatt told CIO Dive.
“Metadata is key to an enriched semantic layer,” Bhatt said. “However, with that being vendor-locked due to the proprietary nature of how it was always stored, the value for the enterprise was lost.”
Companies have tried different frameworks such as data mesh to regain metadata value, but the interoperability challenge remains for integrating metadata into the semantic layer to fuel AI and analytics functionality, Bhatt said.
OSI’s overall goal is to improve interoperability by creating a universal semantic data framework to accelerate AI adoption. Without a common semantic data framework, AI teams can spend weeks reconciling different definitions across platforms, according to the Snowflake release.
By establishing a shared semantic specification, all tools will be able to “speak the same language,” making it easier for companies to adopt different technologies and gain more value from AI tools, according to Snowflake.
Although standardizing metadata will take time to evolve and mature, Bhatt said it’s a significant step toward creating value for AI and analytics.
“OSI is a great push to bring transparency and standardization to how this metadata information is exchanged, defined and stored within the enterprise landscape,” he said
