From Prototype to Production: Introducing the Alation Agent Builder

Today, we’re excited to announce the Alation Agent Builder — a breakthrough for enterprises looking to build agents they can actually trust. With governance, accuracy, and flexibility built in, the Agent Builder helps teams move beyond prototypes to deliver AI on structured data that is explainable, compliant, and ready for scale.

Why AI on structured data presents a unique challenge

AI promises to transform how enterprises work with data. But when it comes to AI on structured data, the stakes are higher. Accuracy matters. Governance matters. Explainability matters. And most solutions aren’t built to deliver on those demands. That’s why so many initiatives never move beyond the pilot stage. Gartner predicts 60% of AI projects will fail without AI-ready data, and MIT research found that 95% of generative AI pilots stall before delivering ROI.

At Alation, we believe metadata is the missing ingredient that makes AI enterprise-ready. Metadata provides the context, lineage, and policies that ensure accuracy and trust. It turns flashy demos into governed, production-grade solutions — bridging the gap between experimentation and scale.

From asking questions to building agents

Last month, we introduced Chat with Your Data — our first demonstration of metadata-aware agents in action. More than a chatbot, it showed how grounding AI in metadata and data products from Alation enables accurate, explainable answers. Business users could ask questions in plain English and finally trust the results.

Now, we’re taking the next step, from exploration to action. The Agent Builder gives anyone – engineers, AI developers, product leaders, and innovators – the power to create governed agents of their own. Instead of only consuming insights, teams can design agents tailored to their unique workflows and business processes. 

Together, Chat with Your Data and Agent Builder show the progression of governed AI at Alation: first empowering employees to explore data confidently, and now enabling builders to design and deploy their own metadata-powered agents.

Buy vs build: The best of both worlds

Across industries, teams are under pressure to deliver AI agents that drive business impact. But most DIY frameworks leave enterprises stranded in the prototype stage. Accuracy is unreliable, governance is an afterthought, and every schema change forces brittle rewiring. The result: agents that may look promising in a demo but can’t be trusted in production.

Prebuilt solutions promise enterprise readiness, but come at the cost of flexibility. Locked into rigid ecosystems, teams lose the ability to adapt models, customize tools, or evolve with their data stack.

The Alation Agent Builder brings the best of both worlds. It combines the flexibility of DIY—letting teams customize agents, models, and tools—with the governance, security, and accuracy required to be enterprise-ready. With metadata at its core, the Agent Builder transforms fragile prototypes into governed, production-grade agents you can trust.

What makes the Agent Builder unique

The Agent Builder gives enterprises a simple, governed path from prototype to production. The Builder delivers four key advantages:

• Accurate: Grounded in the Agentic Knowledge Layer and data products, which channel curated metadata and business context into LLMs for accurate results. Built-in testing and evaluation workflows—using Q&A pairs and custom judges—ensure production readiness with 90%+ accuracy. The outputs are explainable, transparent, and trustworthy.

Automated evaluations of agent outputs (and business guidance) give data consumers the confidence they need to trust and act on those outputs.

• Integrated & flexible: Connects seamlessly to 100+ data sources, including Snowflake, Databricks, Tableau and Power BI, with flexible deployment into custom applications and workflows via API or MCP, eliminating vendor lock-in.

• No-Code customization: Build agents using natural language prompts, no coding required. Jumpstart development with prebuilt Query, Catalog Search, Deep Research, and Dashboard agents, then extend with a growing library of pre-built tools.

• Enterprise-ready: Embeds governance, security, and lineage through the trusted Alation Agentic Knowledge Layer, ensuring every agent operates in alignment with enterprise standards.

With these foundations, organizations can finally move beyond pilots and deliver enterprise-ready AI agents that are both powerful and trustworthy.

Beyond Insights: Automating business workflows

Unlike DIY frameworks or vendor-locked platforms, the Agent Builder combines the essentials: accuracy through metadata, customizable building blocks, governance and access control embedded from the start, and open deployment across ecosystems. Purpose-built for structured data, it gives enterprises the trust and flexibility they need to scale AI with confidence. Organizations can now move beyond isolated insights to true workflow automation. By embedding governed agents directly into everyday tools, the Agent Builder transforms routine interactions into industry-specific intelligence and action.

Examples include:

• Supply chain agent — tracks inventory and flags logistics delays before they impact production.

• Financial compliance agent — reconciles transactions against regulatory requirements in real time.

• Customer success agent — surfaces product usage trends to guide renewals.

• Energy & sustainability agent — monitors carbon footprint and ESG performance across operations.

In every case, agents are woven seamlessly into the fabric of work, turning AI from a passive assistant into an active driver of business outcomes.

Beyond these vertical scenarios, organizations can extend into custom data applications or white-labeled, customer-facing solutions. And because every agent is built on the trusted Alation platform, governance, security, and enterprise-grade controls are embedded from the start — ensuring innovation happens with confidence.

Empowering the next generation of data leaders

Technology alone isn’t enough. Reliable AI starts with trusted data products — curated, governed, and reusable assets that provide the foundation for accurate, explainable agents. To unlock the full value of agentic AI, enterprises need skilled leaders who can think and operate in this product-centric way.

That’s why Alation is launching a landmark initiative to train and certify 10,000 Data Product Managers over the next three years through Alation University.

Data Product Managers sit at the intersection of business, data, and AI. They ensure that every data product meets a clear business need, is governed for compliance, and is designed not just for human users but also for the AI agents of tomorrow. This initiative builds the foundation for both a stronger data culture and a workforce ready to thrive in the agentic data era.

Why it matters

For years, Alation has helped enterprises discover, understand, and trust their data. With Chat With Your Data, we gave every employee a way to safely explore it. Now, with the Agent Builder, we’re empowering builders to take the next step — creating governed agents that accelerate analytics, automate processes, and deliver tangible business value.

As Srihari Kumar, Chief Product Officer at JLL, explains:

“With the Agent Builder, we’re reimagining how people and AI work together within JLL Azara powered by JLL Falcon. These emerging agents are designed not only to provide answers but to guide decisions, coordinate actions, and surface opportunities as they arise. This marks the beginning of a new chapter where intelligent data agents augment human expertise, delivering faster insights and more strategic outcomes for our clients.”

This is how AI moves beyond experiments. This is how metadata becomes action. This is the promise of the Agent Builder.

Curious to learn more? Join the beta program today.