CData Software has unveiled Connect AI, a next-generation solution that extends the enterprise-grade connectivity technology already embedded by leading tech companies including Palantir, SAP, Salesforce Data Cloud, and Google Cloud into AI workloads. Designed specifically for AI applications, Connect AI delivers real-time semantic integration across hundreds of enterprise data sources, enabling contextual understanding alongside live access.
Building on the success of CData’s MCP Servers, which have already connected thousands of users to hundreds of data sources via AI assistants, Connect AI addresses the growing enterprise demand for governed, context-aware AI data integration.
“Enterprises that want to safely and effectively put their business data to work with AI need real-time access combined with semantic understanding. AI needs to comprehend what data means, not just where it lives,” said Manish Patel, Chief Product Officer of CData. “With Connect AI, companies can for the first time give AI applications governed, live access to data across hundreds of systems with the contextual intelligence that transforms AI from a productivity experiment into a trusted enterprise tool.”
Breaking Barriers to Enterprise AI Deployment
Connect AI addresses two critical challenges identified in recent MIT research, which found that despite $30-40 billion in enterprise AI investments, 95% of AI pilots fail to deliver measurable business impact due to data access and governance limitations.
First, data-in-place access preserves rich contextual relationships within enterprise datasets, enabling AI agents to make intelligent decisions while delivering immediate and meaningful insights.
Second, Connect AI integrates with existing security and authentication protocols, ensuring AI access aligns with organizational controls. All interactions are logged under authenticated users or agents, allowing for full governance, while additional AI-specific controls can be applied and managed directly within Connect AI.
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Driving Immediate Value Across Enterprises
With Connect AI, enterprises can leverage AI applications to generate contextually-aware insights from business data in seconds tasks that previously required days or weeks. Its semantic understanding across complex, multi-system queries empowers:
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Sales teams to use Claude for pipeline insights
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Marketing teams to prompt ChatGPT for campaign analytics
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Finance teams to rely on Copilot for real-time budgeting and reporting
IT and AI engineering teams can also fuel AI workflow automation and agent orchestration platforms with direct, scalable access to semantically-rich enterprise data.
Independent software vendors (ISVs) can embed Connect AI within their products, offering end-users self-service integration between their data sources and AI-driven capabilities. This white-label solution allows agents to operate on full semantic context, giving tech companies a competitive edge in the AI marketplace.
“CData’s Connect AI with Acumatica completely changed how we access our ERP data,” said Bhavik Paryani, Growth and Strategy Leader at Paryani Construction. “I was able to pull live financial data and create an interactive dashboard right in the middle of a project meeting – our team could instantly dive into the numbers and get answers on the spot. Having this kind of immediate access to our business data through simple conversation with AI is game-changing for how we operate, furthering our ability to deliver projects on-time, on-budget, and to the highest quality standards.”
Industry Recognition and Market Opportunity
Connect AI’s proven connectivity validates CData’s pivotal role in enterprise data integration and underscores the company’s strategic expansion into AI-native solutions.
“Organizations are struggling to scale AI because data is often siloed, inconsistent, or poorly governed, creating risk and inefficiency. Many AI initiatives stall as companies wrestle with integrating multiple data sources while maintaining compliance,” said Stephen Catanzano, Senior Analyst, Data Management, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Tools like CData’s Connect AI are emerging in response to these widespread market challenges, reflecting the company’s vision to streamline AI-ready data access across enterprises.”
“Connect AI represents a significant milestone in CData’s mission to make every enterprise ‘AI-ready,’ with real-time semantic intelligence,” said Amit Sharma, CEO of CData. “We’re leveraging our deep expertise in enterprise data connectivity built over years of connecting applications to hundreds of data sources and reimagining it for the AI era. This allows us to provide breakthrough access and experiences that simply weren’t possible before for users of AI assistants and agentic systems. With thousands of customers across 100+ countries, we’re uniquely positioned to capture the massive market opportunity as enterprises move from AI experimentation to production deployment with intelligent, contextual data access.”