Wedoany.com Report on Mar 10th, CData Software announced significant upgrades to its CData Connect AI platform at the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit (Booth 308). This update strengthens the platform's three core capabilities: connectivity, context, and control, aiming to help AI projects smoothly transition from the experimental phase to production environments.
Gartner predicts global AI spending will reach $2.5 trillion in 2026, but many generative AI projects still struggle to launch due to data infrastructure issues. CData's own report shows that only 6% of organizations are satisfied with their current AI data infrastructure, with over half relying on difficult-to-scale custom integrations. The CData Connect AI platform aims to address these bottlenecks by enhancing connectivity, context, and control functions.
"The effectiveness of an AI agent depends on the tools it can access and the data behind them, while security depends on the controls managing both," said Amit Sharma, CEO and founder of CData. "This release enables teams to build agent tools tailored to specific use cases based on the correct business context, deploy them securely, and implement granular controls over the data agents can access, the actions they can perform, and the identities they use."
The platform expanded connectivity with the new Connect Gateway, supporting access to data sources behind firewalls such as SAP and SQL Server. In total, it covers over 350 business systems, enabling real-time read and write operations without data movement. For context, it introduced three types of tools: Universal Tools, Source Tools, and Custom Tools, which, combined with workspaces and toolkits, precisely control the data and operational boundaries of agents. For control, it added SCIM 2.0 and custom OAuth applications to strengthen identity management and compliance.
Benchmark tests showed CData Connect AI achieved 98.5% accuracy across 378 scenarios, while other MCP providers had accuracy rates between 65% and 75%, highlighting the impact of architectural differences on AI agent reliability. "CData Connect AI Embed provides production-grade access to over 350 data sources with controls and compliance built into the data layer," commented Alex Noe, CEO of AnySoft. Paul Kantorovich, FP&A and AI Strategy Manager at Foodtastic, added, "It provides Claude with intermediate steps to scope requests before retrieving data, unlike alternatives that load entire tables and overwhelm the context window."
CData will showcase its progress in universal data connectivity during the summit and co-host a presentation with Microsoft, exploring a blueprint for moving from AI pilots to production-ready agents. The company supports the AI data layer for over 10,000 customers globally, aiming to enhance enterprise AI accuracy through connectivity, context, and control.
