From data for humans to data for agents

As AI agents become the new data consumers, the traditional data stack designed for human analysts is proving inadequate due to its inability to deliver real-time, consistent data necessary for autonomous decision-making. Fivetran and Google Cloud are addressing this challenge by developing an Open Data Infrastructure (ODI), which allows for real-time ingestion and a unified data foundation that is both open and consistent. This architecture supports AI agents by providing them with live, trusted context, enabling them to perform autonomous business actions effectively. The integration with Google's Lakehouse and BigQuery ensures that data is immediately accessible for enhanced processing, such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation, while minimizing latency issues typical of batch processing. Additionally, the use of Knowledge Catalog helps maintain data governance, providing the necessary structure and guardrails for reliable AI operations, thus transitioning from static pipelines to a dynamic, always-on data environment that aligns with open standards and automated ingestion.