Informatica, a leader in data management for over three decades, continues to work on improvements and solutions within the AI and automation sectors of data management. This was made clear in a recent interview: I had the pleasure of speaking with Gaurav Pathak, VP of product management for AI and metadata AI at Informatica, about some recent developments shared at Informatica World in Las Vegas that showcased the company’s dedication to innovation.
My interview with Pathak can be found below in a summarized Q&A format, for brevity, along with the full video interview.
Amanda Razani: Hello and welcome to our AI Leadership Insights series. I’m Amanda Razani, and I’m excited to be here today with Gaurav Pathak. He is the vice president of product management for AI and metadata AI at Informatica. How are you doing today?
Gaurav Pathak: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. Very excited to have you at Informatica World this year with us.
Amanda Razani: I am too. It’s been great so far. For our audience, can you share a little bit about Informatica? What are the services that Informatica provides, and a bit about yourself and your role in the company?
Gaurav Pathak: Sure. Informatica has been a data management leader for over 30 years. We started as a data integration company back in the nineties, ensuring that our end users had all the data in the right format for analytics and data warehousing use cases. Over the years, we’ve evolved into a comprehensive data management company, offering services like data integration, metadata management, data governance, data marketplace, data quality, and more.
I’ve been with Informatica for over 11 years, focusing on the metadata management strategy and our AI products. I lead our CLAIRE product area, which integrates new AI innovations, including generative AI, to make data management easier and more intuitive for our users.
Amanda Razani: Wonderful. That’s a good segue into Informatica World. We’re here in Las Vegas, and there’s lots of excitement around some key announcements. Can you share those with our audience?
Gaurav Pathak: Absolutely. We are focused on incorporating the latest AI and automation innovations, including generative AI, into our data management tools. Last year, we announced CLAIRE GPT, which is a ChatGPT for enterprise data. It allows users to ask questions like, “Where can I find datasets for customer churn analysis?” or “What was the revenue of product X in quarter Y?” and get reliable answers based on enterprise data.
We’ve recently made CLAIRE GPT generally available after a public preview. We’re now enhancing it with capabilities like planning and multi-step reasoning, allowing the AI to break down complex data management projects into manageable steps and execute them with human oversight. This includes tasks like creating data pipelines, generating data quality rules, and mastering data for specific domains.
Additionally, we introduced CLAIRE Copilot, which integrates natural language and AI capabilities into every part of the data management stack, making intelligent suggestions and recommendations to users.
Amanda Razani: It seems these tools are extending across industries and departments, speeding up processes and reducing the need for specialized skills with low-code and no-code options.
Gaurav Pathak: Exactly. Our tools enable users to turn generative AI proofs-of-concept into operational applications, whether for healthcare, finance, or other sectors. Informatica helps operationalize these projects, ensuring they run at enterprise-grade levels with robust data management frameworks that include data security and responsible AI practices.
Amanda Razani: It sounds very beneficial. How do business leaders determine which tools and platforms to use, and do you think they will all work together at some point?
Gaurav Pathak: AI is evolving rapidly, and we believe that data management is crucial for AI success. Quality, relevant data is essential to ensure AI models produce meaningful results. We foresee a best-of-breed approach, where different providers offer the best text, audio and image models. However, the common theme will be strong data management to support these models.
Amanda Razani: What are some roadblocks business leaders face in change management and technology implementation, and what advice do you have for them?
Gaurav Pathak: The biggest concerns are data quality, security, and privacy. Businesses need frameworks to ensure data fed into AI systems is accurate and secure. Good data management practices, clear metrics, and responsible AI frameworks can help overcome these obstacles.
Amanda Razani: If there was one key takeaway for our audience, what would it be?
Gaurav Pathak: The most popular use case for generative AI is enabling end users to interact with enterprise data easily. To achieve this, organizations need a strong foundation in data management and metadata. Centralizing metadata allows AI to access and utilize enterprise data effectively, making advanced use cases possible.
Amanda Razani: Absolutely, it all centers around the data.
Gaurav Pathak: Indeed, and Informatica is here to help get your data ready for AI.
Amanda Razani: Thank you for sharing your insights with our audience today. There’s still more to learn here at Informatica World, and I’m looking forward to it.
Gaurav Pathak: Thank you, Amanda.
