The Year Data Went Agentic: Inside Alation’s 2025 Transformation

If 2024 was about preparing for enterprise AI, 2025 was the year organizations finally began realizing its value. For data-driven enterprises, the challenge shifted: it was no longer about organizing data and metadata; it was about putting it into action via AI agents.

At Alation, we spent the last twelve months evolving alongside you. We’ve transitioned from being the world’s most embraced data catalog to becoming a first-of-its-kind Agentic Data Intelligence Platform. Despite the rapid shift in technology, our goal remains the same: helping you deliver meaningful business outcomes with data and AI.

A defining moment: Acquiring Numbers Station AI

In 2025, we made the most significant move in Alation’s history: the acquisition of Numbers Station AI. This wasn’t simply an expansion of capabilities; it was a strategic acceleration of our vision to bring agentic AI safely and effectively into the enterprise.

Through our work with Numbers Station, we saw firsthand how dramatically AI performance improves when agents are grounded in rich metadata and governed context. Their technology enables AI agents to reason over enterprise data with intent, accuracy, and control, transforming metadata from passive documentation into an active intelligence layer. 

This insight, combined with Numbers Station’s proven agent-building expertise, made the acquisition a natural and necessary step in shaping the future of trusted enterprise AI.

Redefining enterprise knowledge

This year, one insight became undeniable: an AI agent is only as good as the metadata it consumes. Without context, agents hallucinate. But with the context found in Alation, agentic outputs are grounded in your enterprise reality, so data consumers can truly trust the results.

Our Agentic Knowledge Layer integrates the enterprise’s most valuable metadata—policies, lineage, usage patterns, steward insights, certifications, and conversations—into a living foundation of institutional knowledge. Through the Numbers Station acquisition process, we consistently observed that enterprise AI outputs became 30–60% more accurate when combined with governed metadata context. This performance delta was a decisive factor in our decision to partner and ultimately bring Numbers Station into Alation.

From products to prototypes

This year, we launched Agent Studio to enable teams to transition from prototypes to production-grade agents.  Builders can leverage the Agent SDK for deep customization or use the Agent Builder’s guided experience with prebuilt templates—such as Query and Deep Research agents—to accelerate time to value.

Critically, these agents are grounded in data products, which serve as the foundation for trusted AI. Data products package high-value data alongside its governance, quality signals, lineage, and usage policies—ensuring AI agents operate on assets that are certified, compliant, and fit for purpose.

We reinforced this approach with the introduction of the Data Products Builder, a copilot-like experience that transforms raw, fragmented data into certified, AI-ready products in minutes. By treating data products as first-class assets, organizations can scale AI without compromising governance—because trust is embedded from the start, not bolted on later.

This combination of agentic intelligence and productized data laid the groundwork for our most consequential year of industry validation to date.

Leading the industry through analyst and user recognition

Our shift to an agentic platform wasn't just a vision—it was validated by the most rigorous voices in the industry and, most importantly, by the people using our platform every day.

Alation was once again named a Leader in both the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Metadata Management Solutions and The Forrester Wave™: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2025. Beyond the analyst reports, we were honored to achieve a 4.7 rating in Gartner Peer Insights (“metadata management” category). This score reflects our commitment to being the most interoperable and open platform in the Modern Data Stack, supported by our deepened partnerships with Snowflake, Databricks, and AWS.

While these accolades confirm our position in the market, the true measure of our success lies in the impact our customers are making on the front lines of global industry.

Empowering data radicals to transform global supply chains

The year’s most inspiring stories came from our Data Radicals, particularly those navigating the high-stakes world of supply chain management and manufacturing. In these sectors, the "bullwhip effect"—where small demand shifts cause massive supply disruptions—makes agentic data management a necessity.

• Daimler Truck North America: CDAO Édgar Gallo shared how DTNA is using AI agents to move from "data documented" to "data activated." By developing "vertical" agents that think like supply chain planners and "horizontal" agents for execution, DTNA is building an early-warning system for disruptions. As Gallo noted, "No metadata, no AI", highlighting that agents are only trustworthy when grounded in the cataloged wisdom of the enterprise.

• Lipton Teas and Infusions: Under the leadership of Robin Rietveldt, Lipton is brewing a "smarter supply chain" by using Alation to power digital twins and prescriptive maintenance. By embedding Alation’s metadata directly into factory-floor tools, they are helping workers troubleshoot machinery in real-time, reducing costs and protecting customer relationships.

• Brambles: Operating at a staggering scale with 330 million reusable platforms, Brambles utilized Alation CDE Manager to automate the governance of their most critical data. By moving away from manual "grind" and toward automated discovery of Critical Data Elements (CDEs), they’ve ensured their data is worthy of the trust required for autonomous AI initiatives.

These organizations prove that when data governance moves from a "box to check" to a "launchpad for action," the entire business moves faster. This collective success is also what fuels our growing global community.

Connecting a global community of 20,000 members

Technology is nothing without the people who wield it. In 2025, the Alation Community reached a massive milestone, surpassing 20,000 members sharing AI and data stories.

We had the privilege of bringing this community together at revAlation events in Chicago, London, and Sydney. These gatherings were more than just conferences; they were environments where leaders could collaborate on the future of AI governance. This human-centric approach ensures that every product we launch is influenced by the real-world guidance of the people who use it.

As we look toward the horizon, the momentum of this community is what will define our next chapter.

Looking ahead to a fulfilling 2026

Thirteen years ago, Alation started with a simple idea: help people find data. In 2025, we’re helping people and agents alike understand and leverage data.

As we head into 2026, we remain committed to building the most interoperable, open, and intelligent platform in the world. We are grateful to our customers and partners for being the heart of this journey. We can’t wait to continue building great things together and helping you drive impactful business outcomes in the year to come.

See you in the New Year!