A Five-Time Leader: Alation Recognized in the 2025 Gartner^® Magic Quadrant^™ for Metadata Management Solutions

Alation has once again been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Metadata Management Solutions. This marks the fifth time Alation has been recognized as a Leader, following previous recognition from 2017 through 2020.

After five years, we believe the publication of this Magic Quadrant marks a turning point for the data and AI industry. And for good reason; the report predicts that “by 2027, the number of organizations adopting active metadata practices will increase by more than 75% across data, analytics, and AI to accelerate automation, insight discovery, and operational efficiency.” In our view, this surge underscores what Alation has long championed: metadata is no longer optional—it’s the backbone of modern AI.

Why metadata matters for AI

To us, after five years, this Magic Quadrant’s publication underscores metadata’s critical role in the AI era:

“I am excited to announce that the “Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions” has been published. 

After resting it for 5 years, we brought it back to life. Metadata management solutions are undergoing a significant evolution, shifting from simple data catalogs to metadata 'anywhere' orchestration platforms, acting as technology enablers. D&A leaders must consider the market evolution and vendor landscape as they start data and AI journeys.”

- Melody Chien, Senior Research Director, Gartner Research

After all, AI is only as reliable as the data that powers it—and that data is only comprehensible when enriched with the context of metadata.

As enterprises embed AI into daily workflows, data consumers face a critical question: what can they trust? Their jobs depend on accurate insights, yet many AI systems interpret data without understanding it. Analyses of structured data like financial records must be accurate, but traditional AI models often misread it without context. Metadata adds that missing context, helping AI understand not just what the data says but why it matters. Without it, enterprise AI risks hallucinating and producing unreliable results.

Alation has long helped enterprises collect and use metadata for cataloging and governance. After acquiring Numbers Station AI in May 2025, we’ve accelerated innovation—launching seven new products, including Chat with Your Data, which lets data consumers “chat” with enterprise data, and Agent Studio, which empowers builders to craft production-ready AI agents. Together, these innovations form a reimagined platform where AI works alongside people to make data management smarter, faster, and more automated.

By integrating Numbers Station’s advanced AI capabilities, Alation now bridges stochastic AI with deterministic enterprise data—delivering a new generation of enterprise AI that’s accurate because of metadata. Internal testing shows that when paired with rich metadata, AI models are 30–60% more accurate.

For enterprises, this means metadata is no longer a byproduct—it’s the foundation of AI readiness. As AI moves from prototypes to production, metadata ensures models deliver trustworthy, safe, and scalable outcomes.

Proof in practice

Around the world, leading organizations are turning metadata into measurable business impact. From broadcasting to healthcare, customers rely on Alation to power trusted AI and accelerate time-to-value.

BBC drives faster time-to-value

The BBC unified fragmented metadata into trusted, reusable data products using Alation.

“We went from poorly defined, siloed tables to a unified product we can trust,” said Nathalie Berdat, Head of Data and AI Governance.

At the BBC, Alation has become central to daily workflows, enabling faster, data-driven decisions. We believe this aligns with Gartner guidance that metadata management solutions should help “break down data silos by providing a unified and organized view of data across an organization.”

Euromonitor supports AI accuracy with metadata

Euromonitor integrated Alation Chat with Your Data into its Passport AI platform, letting clients explore market intelligence conversationally.

“Clients can now uncover insights through simple conversation—while maintaining trust, accuracy, and control,” said Lamine Lahouasnia, Director of Gen AI.

Embedding metadata context delivers explainable, accurate insights that outperform generic models.

CHOP uses Alation to make healthcare data AI-ready

At the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), teams use Alation with other analytics tools to ensure the healthcare data powering AI models accurately represents real-world clinical complexity.

“By working from one centralized catalog, users can access reliable, well-governed information and quickly understand key details,” said Beth Senay, Director of Data Governance and Data Literacy.

This unified foundation helps CHOP create diverse, representative datasets that reflect the realities of patient care—building AI models that are both accurate and actionable. 

In our opinion, their approach exemplifies the Gartner definition of AI readiness: “supporting the assessment of the readiness of data for AI by helping evaluate the representativeness of the data, the ongoing qualification of the data, and the contextual governance required for AI implementations.”

Peer recognition: What customers say

On Gartner Peer Insights™, Alation has a 4.7/5 rating in Metadata Management Solutions, based on 44 reviews—the most of any vendor in this market as of November 2025. Customers consistently highlight the same themes:

Customer feedback includes:

• “Alation Transformed our Data Chaos into a Trusted AI-Powered Discovery Hub”  - Director of Advanced Analytics in the Manufacturing Industry 

• “Alation Unites Business and Tech Teams to Democratize Metadata Effectively” - Technical Product Owner in the Consumer Industry 

• “Alation's High Standards and Professionalism Impress Business Team Users” - Data and Analytics Leader in the Retail Industry

The foundation for AI tomorrow

As Alation CEO and co-founder Satyen Sangani notes, “Metadata is the foundation of AI readiness. In turn, AI is essential to automate, scale, and improve the creation, management, and maintenance of metadata.”

For us, Alation’s five-time recognition as a Leader underscores a single truth: organizations that invest in metadata today are building the foundation for AI tomorrow.

Our agentic platform delivers AI outputs that are:

• Accurate and transparent: Models reason with governed data instead of guessing.

• Contextually aware: Agents understand business meaning, not just data structure.

• Compliant and explainable: Every output is traceable and auditable.

From the BBC to Euromonitor and hundreds of global enterprises, Alation empowers organizations to turn metadata into measurable business impact.

Learn about the future of AI-ready data governance:

• Download the full report

• Read the press release

• Request a demo

• Read customer stories 

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions, Melody Chien, Thornton Craig, Guido De Simoni, Roxane Edjlali, 19 November 2025.

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