Denodo 9.5 adds metric views for AI data governance

Denodo has released version 9.5 of its data management platform, aimed at organisations using AI and analytics tools that depend on governed access to business data.

The update introduces metric views, allowing companies to define business measures such as revenue, profit, order count and customer value once within Denodo's semantic layer. Those measures can then be reused across dashboards, data products, business intelligence tools and AI applications, rather than being recalculated differently by separate teams or systems.

This addresses a common issue for companies building AI systems around enterprise data. While access to data has become easier, many organisations still struggle to keep internal definitions, formulas and governance rules consistent when data is used across different tools.

Knowledge graph

The release also expands the Denodo Data Marketplace with what it calls a 360 graph and asset extensions. These additions let organisations map a broader set of business and technical assets around data, including ETL processes, consuming applications, notebooks, business glossaries, data dictionaries, governance controls, data product contracts, data sharing agreements and AI skills.

The aim is to give users and software agents more than raw data access by exposing the surrounding business and governance context. In practice, an AI system can be shown not only a data source, but also its lineage, definitions, downstream uses and associated controls.

Denodo said governed data products enhanced with semantic elements such as metric views now form a broader enterprise knowledge graph. It argues this gives business users a fuller picture of the processes, definitions, controls and relationships linked to enterprise data, while improving the basis on which AI assistants and agents discover and reason over information.

A public beta user said the update changed how the platform could be used inside an organisation. "Denodo's 360 graph and asset extensions mark a major milestone in the evolution of our data governance model, reinforcing Denodo as the core of our semantic layer and the central hub for governed access to data assets," said Jose Carlos Bermejo, Head of Data & Analytics at Air Europa.

"These new capabilities enable us to enrich, connect, and contextualize our data assets, turning them into accessible, governed, and interconnected data products through the Denodo Data Marketplace. As a result, we can provide business users with a unified, intuitive, and trusted view of data, accelerating the adoption of data as a strategic asset and scaling its governed use across the organization as part of our broader data democratization strategy," Bermejo said.

AI workflow

The release also updates Denodo Assistant, the company's tool for building and managing data views. Denodo said the assistant now offers improved reasoning and disambiguation, allowing users to work through an interactive process as they explore metadata, generate VQL, refine query logic and troubleshoot problems.

According to the company, the tool can prompt users with follow-up questions and contextual feedback during development. The change is designed to reduce the need for teams to know exact syntax or identify the precise views and fields needed for each operation before they begin.

Broader links

Denodo has also expanded support for external platforms and data environments. The release adds connectivity with Databricks and Azure AI Search, support for vector search with indexes for semantic and document queries, improved support for unstructured data, stronger support for Delta tables and Databricks environments, and greater efficiency for users of the company's Lakehouse Accelerator with Iceberg.

These changes reflect a broader shift in enterprise data architecture, particularly among companies modernising lakehouse and distributed data environments. Businesses in regulated sectors such as banking, insurance, healthcare, financial services and government are under pressure to make AI systems more usable without weakening controls over how data is defined, shared and governed.

Alberto Pan, Denodo's Chief Technology Officer, said the latest version was intended to address that tension. "Agentic AI is changing what organizations require from their data infrastructure," Pan said.

"AI systems need to understand business context, work with trusted metrics, access live operational data, and operate within clear governance controls. Denodo Platform 9.5 helps organizations deliver the trusted active context that AI, analytics, and data consumers across the entire enterprise need to act with confidence," he said.