Generative AI is Powering the Data Industry: Qlik Leads the Way

The data industry is exploding, with generative artificial intelligence accelerating that growth and potential.

That was the overall sentiment expressed by industry analysts John Farrier, Savannah Peterson and Shelley Kramer as they previewed theCUBE's coverage of the Qlik Connect event taking place in Orlando today.

“Not surprisingly, data is a challenge for everyone,” says Shelly Kramer (pictured center), managing director and principal analyst at CUBE Research. “Everyone is struggling to understand data and how to get the most out of it. Where there's data, there's opportunity.”

Cramer spoke with fellow theCUBE analyst Savannah Peterson (left) and John Farrier (right), co-founder and executive analyst at theCUBE Research, at Qlik Connect during an exclusive broadcast from SiliconANGLE Media's livestreaming studio, theCUBE. They discussed the future of data management with generative AI and how companies like QlikTech International AB are driving innovation in this space. (*Disclosure details below.)

A glimpse into the future of data

A Qlik Answers demo at the start of the event offered a glimpse into the future of AI-powered data analytics: Furrier said companies with strong data management practices, including data governance and handling, are best positioned to benefit from this next generation of generative AI tools.

“We're finally at a time when we can really see the benefits of user experience, the human side of data management,” he says. “Empowering the business powers more applications. We're seeing the fruits of an entire generation of data coming to fruition now.”

Qlik has long been focused on and invested in making data a “foundational element” of its customers' businesses, Kramer said, and the data governance practices the company has established position it to take advantage of the recent rise of generative AI, unlike companies that haven't historically prioritized data.

“There's a growing need right now to build a culture around data,” Kramer said. “It's really exciting to see how Qlik has embraced that and see all the work they've done in the field over the years now coming to fruition.”

The next wave of innovation

Blending generative AI and data to enable powerful new capabilities, Qlik Connect demonstrated why businesses that invest in data preparation are well-positioned to capitalize on the next wave of technology disruption and productivity gains.

“What I want to ask is, what is their strategy,” Farrier said. “If you connect the dots, the productivity revolution will come from data. What they're doing and the power they're giving to businesses will help them build a better future and a better world.”

One of the standout presentations at the event was a demo from Qlik that explained the benefits of processing unstructured data alongside structured data. Furrier noted that adding unstructured data opens up new possibilities with multimodal generative AI, opening the door to “an explosion of new applications and use cases” that leverage both structured and unstructured data in new and powerful ways.

“Databases have been around for years, and data management solutions have been around for generations, but the ability to now handle both structured and unstructured data is what's really fascinating to me,” he says. “Once you add unstructured data, that's where multimodal generative AI really begins to take hold.”

Below is the full video interview, which is part of a story about Qlik Connect from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE Research.

(* Disclosure: theCUBE is a paid media partner of Qlik Connect. Neither QlikTech International AB, the sponsor of theCUBE's event coverage, nor any other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE