The world of enterprise expertise is experiencing a seismic shift. For many years, analytics revolved round outputs like dashboards and studies as the first car for perception. However the rise of agentic AI—through which brokers can autonomously analyze, motive, and act—requires us to realign our focus towards one thing way more elementary: the semantic knowledge mannequin.
That’s why Salesforce is making a first-of-its-kind dedication with an alliance of business leaders—to construct in direction of an open, interoperable future that the AI period calls for. And with a deeply built-in expertise stack constructed to attach semantic definitions on to tangible enterprise outcomes, we’re uniquely positioned to assist lead this cost.
The ‘knowledge that means disconnect’ is a important blocker to AI adoption
Accenture predicts that by 2030, AI brokers will change into the first customers of enterprise software program, however these new clever employees are solely as efficient as the information they will entry and perceive. Brokers want clear and trusted semantic definitions to translate intent and to supply correct and related outputs—whether or not that’s knowledge visualizations, really useful subsequent steps, and even taking autonomous actions. With out this sturdy core to floor its evaluation in constant, correct knowledge that means, we threat our investments in AI producing noise somewhat than trusted insights.
As firms race to embrace AI, many are hitting a wall I name the “knowledge that means disconnect.” Whereas knowledge could also be unified, its that means shouldn’t be. A single enterprise time period like “buyer churn” or “lively lead” usually has a number of, conflicting definitions throughout completely different programs and groups. A buyer satisfaction rating (CSAT) might be outlined on extensively completely different scales with various definitions of “good.” This downside is compounded by “semantic sprawl,” the place completely different dashboards have barely completely different logic for a similar metric—like one report defining every week as beginning on Monday and one other on Sunday.
These inconsistencies could appear small, however their affect is gigantic. They erode probably the most important asset for any data-driven group: belief. When leaders see conflicting numbers, they lose confidence and hesitate to make selections. This forces knowledge groups to spend lots of of hours manually reconciling enterprise logic throughout siloed platforms—a serious operational bottleneck that additionally provides huge complexity. These redundant efforts stall innovation and undermine the reliability of the very AI fashions meant to speed up enterprise outcomes.
Within the agentic period, the semantic mannequin is the true heart of gravity for AI and analytics; it’s the foundational “supply code of enterprise understanding.” Nonetheless, this basis is commonly locked right into a single vendor’s stack. This creates one other knowledge silo that forces clients to continually rebuild enterprise logic in new environments, and prevents AI from scaling throughout the best-of-breed instruments that companies depend on.
Introducing the Open Semantic Interchange (OSI)
To resolve this foundational problem, Salesforce is proud to co-lead the Open Semantic Interchange (OSI) alongside business leaders like Snowflake, dbt Labs, and extra. The purpose of this initiative is to create a typical, vendor-neutral specification that ensures context, that means, and knowledge outcomes are preserved throughout each platform our clients use. Our purpose is easy: enterprise that means needs to be outlined as soon as and understood all over the place.
The OSI will work to determine a shared commonplace so that every one instruments can “converse the identical language,” creating interoperability throughout instruments and giving firms the pliability to undertake best-of-breed applied sciences with out dropping consistency. On this effort, Tableau’s preliminary focus is on a number of important capabilities:
- Bi-directional metadata trade: We’re standardizing how metrics, dimensions, hierarchies, and relationships are exchanged between platforms. This permits enterprise logic to move seamlessly with out guide work or redundant recoding.
- Seamless governance propagation: We’re making certain that the entry controls and knowledge lineage outlined in a supply semantic layer are mechanically enforced and revered throughout all taking part programs. This offers a constant layer of belief and safety, all over the place.
- Native question logic: We’re preserving question integrity through the use of the supply platform’s native runtime to generate outcomes. This ensures that enterprise logic is executed as meant by the supply system, making certain consistency between platforms.
The Salesforce benefit: An open ecosystem constructed on belief
At Salesforce, we imagine the way forward for knowledge is open and interoperable, not locked right into a single vendor’s stack. A semantic layer that solely works inside one ecosystem merely creates one other knowledge silo, defeating your entire objective. This initiative is a pure extension of our open philosophy, giving clients the liberty to make use of one of the best instruments for his or her wants with out being pressured to continually rebuild enterprise logic in each new surroundings.
Our place available in the market offers a novel benefit to assist drive this variation.
- With many years of area experience throughout gross sales, service, advertising, and commerce, we will present clients with pre-built semantic fashions that function highly effective beginning factors, accelerating their journey to agentic readiness.
- Our deep integration throughout the complete expertise stack—from Information Cloud, Agentforce, and Tableau to operational purposes like Gross sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Advertising Cloud, and extra—permits us to attach semantic definitions to tangible enterprise outcomes. We are able to prepare AI not simply on person clicks, however on whether or not a really useful motion led to a profitable sale or renewal, creating a robust suggestions loop that attributes actual worth to analytical work.
- Our dedication is to flexibility. Salesforce Information Cloud is designed to behave as a knowledge orchestration layer, permitting clients with mature investments in platforms like Snowflake, Databricks, Google, AWS, and others to go away their knowledge at relaxation whereas nonetheless leveraging our semantic capabilities via zero-copy integration.
The longer term is a collaboration—proceed the journey with us
Profitable companies shall be powered by a partnership between people and their AI counterparts. For this collaboration to succeed, it requires the sturdy and open semantic basis we’re constructing at present. The Open Semantic Interchange is our dedication, alongside our companions, to serving to each buyer construct that basis and confidently harness the facility of trusted, scalable AI.
Watch the Agentic Tableau Keynote
See this imaginative and prescient in motion and listen to extra about its real-world affect from clients within the Agentic Tableau Keynote at Dreamforce 2025 on Salesforce+.
