Tech News
Unlock Business Value with GenAI Through a Data Semantic Approach
By Robert Thanaraj, Sr Director Analyst at Gartner
Semantic representations of information are crucial for the functionality of large language models (LLMs), which is fuelling a heightened focus on semantics within data and analytics (D&A) and AI.
Data silos become entrenched and limit an organization’s capacity to draw insights from its data. Without understanding the relationships within data, the individual pieces of information become less useful.
Semantic approaches facilitate a shared understanding of business terms and their interrelationships, which is vital for providing the necessary context for generative AI (GenAI). In a Gartner survey on the evolution of data management, 44% of the respondents from AI-ready organizations reported that semantic alignment is a key factor in assessing the AI readiness of their data.
D&A leaders can enhance and expand their semantic understanding by leveraging emerging technologies such as knowledge graphs and augmented data catalogs, thereby unlocking greater value from their information resources.
What is Data Semantics?
Data semantics refers to the meaning and interpretation of data within a business-specific context, as opposed to focusing on the physical representation of data through a data dictionary or a business glossary. It involves understanding what a data element represents, how it should be used, and its relationships with other data elements. Without this understanding, data is of limited use for AI use cases.
Semantic modeling is a practice of connecting technical metadata with business metadata.
A business glossary serves as the foundation for all things “semantic,” documenting the meanings of business-related terms. When the semantics and rules of a business glossary are well-understood, it leads to better data quality, easier integration and greater usefulness, supporting interactions with LLMs. The glossary also supports business goals like reducing costs and managing risks by making definitions clear, consistent and easy to trace back to their sources.
Top Recommendations for D&A leaders
- -Upskill your data engineers with semantic modeling techniques such as the use of knowledge graphs in building business ontologies.
- -Introduce DataOps practices to “deliver value from data” more easily, quickly and broadly. Take a people-, product- and governance-centric approach.
- -Invest in converged data management platforms. Establish a platform engineering team that produces platform services for platform tenants.
Key Benefits of Data Semantics
Leveraging and governing semantics effectively enables:
- –Improved Data Understanding: Both people and applications gain a unified view of data and its structure. For example, if several medical e-commerce sites use consistent relationships between terms, applications can extract and aggregate information across these sites to support user queries or serve as input for other applications.
- –Knowledge Reuse: Relationships uncovered by one group can be reused or built upon by others for new use cases, allowing previously identified connections to be embedded in future work.
- –Enhanced Accuracy with LLMs: Incorporating knowledge graphs into the training and inference processes of LLMs serves as a factual base (i.e., data and metadata source) for mitigating errors and hallucinations.
- –Enhanced Interoperability and Innovation: By adopting semantic modeling, organizations open themselves to a wider range of use cases and enable more effective data interchange.
Link Data from Different Sources to Derive Data Relationships
Semantic reconciliation plays a crucial role in effectively linking data from different sources. It is also essential for inferring relationships between disparate datasets. Without a clear understanding of the relationships, correlations and distinctions among the meanings of data from different modalities such as text, videos, images and structured data, organizations cannot fully realize the potential of their data assets.
Modern semantic tools use algorithms to find connections in data. These tools recommend the best ways to clean, organize and analyze information. They also track where data comes from and how it is used for better governance.
With augmented data discovery, algorithms automatically detect correlations, segments, clusters, outliers and relationships, presenting the most statistically significant and relevant results. By using these semantic approaches, organizations can connect information from different sources, uncover relationships and gain valuable insights that drive better decisions.
In business ecosystems, the degree of openness is driven by members’ strategies, common goals and shared interests. For example, governments, nongovernmental organizations, charities and community groups can collaborate on health or public policy issues, or in open-source developer communities. This creates an opportunity for exploiting the knowledge of data and the meaning of data in terms of what can be applied to several digital business moments.
Lastly Think Data Semantics Before Introducing Large Language Models
Organizations are spearheading transformative initiatives to implement large language models in order to transform their operations. However, data and analytics leaders often rush to integrate LLM capabilities without first ensuring these tools are aligned with real business outcomes. To maximize value, it’s essential to connect LLMs with robust semantic frameworks.
Knowledge graphs are a powerful foundation for leveraging LLMs in business contexts. These machine-readable data structures capture semantic knowledge about both physical and digital entities. These worlds include entities and their relationships, which adhere to a network of nodes and links forming the graph data model.
LLMs can streamline the creation of ontologies, which define categories and relationships within data. By using “few-shot” learning prompts—providing just a handful of examples—users can guide LLMs to generate base ontologies in open formats that suit their needs. These initial frameworks can then be refined for greater detail as required.
Additionally, LLMs support ontology mapping by helping users align entities and relationships across different datasets or systems. With targeted prompts and sample mappings, organizations can extract relevant connections from their data and improve accuracy through iterative refinement.
By adopting large language models alongside semantic representations like knowledge graphs and ontologies, organizations position themselves for faster deployment of advanced analytics solutions that deliver meaningful business value.
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Tech News
Forcepoint and BeyondTrust Connect Identity Risk to Data Exposure, Letting Customers Revoke Risky Access with Precision
Global AI data security leader Forcepoint and BeyondTrust, the global leader in privilege-centric identity security protecting Paths to Privilege™, today announced the new integration of Forcepoint’s AI-native data discovery and classification with BeyondTrust Identity Security Insights®. The integration is available now and debuts today at BeyondTrust’s Go Beyond Chicago customer conference.
When BeyondTrust detects risk across a human, machine or AI identity based on behavior, privilege or compromised credentials, Forcepoint pinpoints the sensitive information that identity can reach and where exposure is greatest as risk changes. Customers can then use Forcepoint controls to immediately cut off that identity’s access to the specific records involved, without affecting anyone else’s access or work.
“With AI agents now doing real work inside the business, blocking autonomous tools isn’t an option, and neither is guessing,” said Bakshi Kohli, Chief Technology Officer of Forcepoint. “When BeyondTrust tells us an identity looks risky, we already know what data it can get to. Teams can take that one identity’s access away and nothing more. That’s the precision agentic enterprises ask for today.”
Security teams often get an identity alert in one console and have to open another to understand the full risk. The flagged identity could be a forgotten test login or an account that can read the customer database, and telling the two apart means checking both systems by hand, one alert at a time. Every minute of manual review is another minute an overprivileged identity or AI agent keeps acting.
Turning Identity Alerts into AI Data Security Action
Customers now get the data context behind each identity risk, along with the controls to act on it. BeyondTrust Identity Security Insights® surfaces risky identities based on behavior, privilege, compromised credentials and relationships among them. Forcepoint Data Security Posture Management (DSPM), part of the company’s AI data security solutions, maps that risk to the confidential information within its permissions and provides controls to restrict that access.
Compromised identities. A stolen identity is only as dangerous as the access it provides and the data that access puts in reach. When BeyondTrust detects a compromised identity or entitlement, the True Privilege™ graph maps the real blast radius: every path that identity can take to privilege, not just the permissions on paper. Forcepoint shows which sensitive records sit at the end of those paths, from personal data to financial records and trade secrets, and lets teams block that credential’s access.
Service accounts and AI agents with too much access. Machine and AI identities outnumber human users 144-to-1, according to 2026 research from the Cloud Security Alliance, and many carry permissions that haven’t been reviewed since they were granted. If BeyondTrust detects risky behavior or excessive privilege associated with a service account or AI agent, teams can use Forcepoint to revoke its access to the sensitive data at risk in one step. The account keeps doing the rest of its job.
Too many alerts, too little context. Instead of cross-checking two consoles, customers work from one Forcepoint dashboard that ranks each risky identity by the value of accessible data and shows why that identity was deemed risky. With a clear line of sight from identity and privilege risk to sensitive data, teams investigate faster, focus on critical vulnerabilities and remove or restrict access with targeted precision.
“The strongest technology alliances bring together complementary capabilities to solve problems neither side should have to solve in isolation,” said David Manks, Vice President of Global Strategic Alliances at BeyondTrust. “Forcepoint’s understanding of sensitive data and BeyondTrust’s identity and privilege intelligence provide two critical dimensions of risk. Bringing them together helps customers see where risky access creates meaningful exposure and take precise action to protect what matters.”
Tech News
Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre and PATRIZIA sign strategic partnership to support infrastructure investment and development
The Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre (ADPIC)and PATRIZIA, an investment manager in real assets, have signed a strategic partnership to deepen cooperation around infrastructure investment and project delivery in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, drawing on PATRIZIA’s wider real assets expertise.
The strategic partnership was signed during the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit (ADIS) International Roadshow at EXPO REAL 2026 in Munich by His Excellency Eng Maysarah Mahmoud Salim Eid, Director General of ADPIC and Hassan Awada, Senior Executive Officer, MENA at PATRIZIA.
ADPIC sits at the centre of Abu Dhabi’s capital-project programme, coordinating planning, governance, and delivery across approximately 500 projects valued at more than AED 200bn, equivalent to more than USD 56bn. The programme spans housing, transport, culture, education, social infrastructure, and the wider urban systems supporting Abu Dhabi’s long-term growth, livability, and economic competitiveness.
The agreement also reflects the wider objective of the ADIS International Roadshow by connecting Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure ecosystem with international partners that bring specialist expertise and long-term capability, while deepening engagement with Germany and Europe. The partnership establishes a framework for PATRIZIA and ADPIC to exchange international expertise and explore areas where private-sector participation can strengthen project delivery and long-term value creation. This includes dialogue around public-private partnership structures, sharing international best practice in infrastructure financing and delivery, and exploring potential investment and co-investment opportunities arising from Abu Dhabi’s capital projects programme.
The two organisations will also cooperate on market insight, benchmarking and technical studies relevant to infrastructure investment and project delivery, while exploring ways to support greater international participation, knowledge exchange, and access to specialist capability across Abu Dhabi’s ecosystem.
H.E. Eng. Maysarah Mahmoud Salim Eid, Director General of ADPIC, said: “Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure programme requires partners that bring proven international capability, market insight, and a long-term commitment. Through this partnership with PATRIZIA, we will explore how that experience can support private-sector participation, strengthen project delivery, and create long-term value. This is exactly the type of practical international cooperation the ADIS International Roadshow is designed to advance.”
PATRIZIA has worked with institutional investors and partners in Abu Dhabi for 15 years, building long-term relationships across the Emirate. The recent establishment of a permanent presence in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) marked a further step in that commitment, strengthening PATRIZIA’s ability to work with regional investors and partners and connect them with its international real assets platform.
Asoka Wöhrmann, CEO of PATRIZIA, said: “Abu Dhabi has established itself as an important centre for long-term investment and infrastructure development. Our teams have worked with clients and partners in the Emirate for the past 15 years, and our decision to establish a permanent presence in Abu Dhabi reflects the importance we attach to that relationship. We have seen first-hand the scale of its ambition and the increasingly important role that international expertise and private capital can play. This partnership creates a framework through which PATRIZIA can contribute its experience across real assets while deepening our longstanding relationships in Abu Dhabi.”
Hassan Awada, Senior Executive Officer, MENA at PATRIZIA, said: “Abu Dhabi is developing into a significant market for infrastructure and real assets investment, supported by major infrastructure pipeline and a clear focus on attracting international investment and expertise. Our partnership with ADPIC gives us an opportunity to closely support on delivering these priorities and to explore where PATRIZIA’s international investment capabilities can support the Emirate’s long-term ambitions.”
The agreement reflects PATRIZIA’s wider strategy of combining its established global real assets platform with selective international growth in markets where it has longstanding client relationships and relevant investment expertise.
Tech News
NetApp to Showcase AI-Ready Data Infrastructure as CEO George Kurian Takes the Stage at Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026
NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, will exhibit at Ai Everything Abu Dhabi 2026, taking place on October 6 and 7 at ADNEC Centre in Abu Dhabi. The event will also feature George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer of NetApp, who will take part in a fireside chat on the Summit Stage titled, “Can AI Be Trusted? The New Architecture of Sovereign, Secure and Safe AI.” As AI moves from generating answers to taking action across the enterprise, Kurian will explore why trust must extend beyond the model to the data, infrastructure and systems AI can access, as well as the growing importance of security, data sovereignty and governance.
At the centre of NetApp’s presence will be the NetApp Platform, designed to provide enterprises an intelligent, connected, governed foundation that delivers zero-copy access to their data. Customers can quickly and confidently access, manage, and activate their data and be confident it is AI-ready and secure so they can take on the most demanding tasks and solve the most complex problems. In addition to being available on-premises, the NetApp Platform is natively embedded in the world’s largest public clouds. As organizations move AI initiatives from experimentation into production, having data that is accessible, governed and protected becomes increasingly important to scaling AI securely and efficiently.
“Abu Dhabi’s ambition to become an AI-native government reflects a broader shift we are seeing across the Middle East, where AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to large-scale deployment. But scaling AI is ultimately a data challenge. Organizations need trusted, secure and accessible data wherever it resides. The NetApp Platform provides the foundation customers need to build Intelligent Data Infrastructure that enables them to move from AI ambition to real business outcomes, securely and at scale.” said Suhail Hasanain, Senior Director and General Manager, MEA at NetApp
During the two-day event, NetApp’s regional and global experts will engage with industry leaders, partners and customers on building AI-ready infrastructure and addressing the data and infrastructure challenges that can prevent AI projects from progressing into production.
Visitors will have an opportunity to hear the latest developments from NetApp INSIGHT 2026 in Las Vegas, one of the company’s key events focused on tackling today’s biggest AI and technology challenges with intelligent data infrastructure.
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