Actian Data Intelligence Platform

Overview

Worth knowing before you start: Actian is not the company you may remember. It is long established in databases — the Ingres and Vector lineage — but actian.com now leads with the Actian Data Intelligence Platform, a catalogue and governance product, and the database line sits behind it. This profile covers the data intelligence platform only.

The technical distinction is a federated knowledge graph rather than a conventional metadata store. The claim attached to it is that AI assistants and agents can reach trusted metadata, business definitions, lineage, policies and the relationships between data through open standards, which is a stronger proposition for agent use than a catalogue designed for humans to browse.

It organises itself around discover, trust and activate. Discovery is search across the estate. Trust is automated lineage, real-time observability and a per-dataset trust score, which the company frames pointedly — know a dataset's trust score before you use it, not after it breaks something. Activate is where it goes beyond most catalogues: data products are packaged through guided wizards, the data contract is generated automatically, and the result is published to a marketplace.

That automatic contract generation is the most distinctive feature here. Most catalogues document what exists; this one produces the artefact that governs it.

Three delivery details are unusually concrete. Custom AI agents return answers with definitions, ownership and lineage attached rather than a bare value. Pre-trained agents turn business questions into governed SQL with controls enforced on the query rather than applied afterwards. And a Chrome plugin surfaces business definitions inside Tableau and Power BI, so a reader checks what a metric means without leaving the dashboard.

No pricing is published.

Key features and capabilities

The same headings are used for every data catalogues & discovery entry, so two tools can be read side by side.

Metadata ingestion

• Metadata federated through a knowledge graph rather than consolidated into one store
• Automated metadata enrichment to reduce manual stewardship
• Automatic identification of anomalous data activity

Search and discovery

• Search across the estate as the primary entry point
• A marketplace where packaged data products are published and found
• A Chrome plugin surfaces definitions inside Tableau and Power BI dashboards

Lineage

• Automated lineage rather than manually maintained
• Lineage returned alongside answers from AI agents, not only displayed in the catalogue
• Data relationships exposed through the knowledge graph

Glossary, classification and policy

• A trust score per dataset, readable before use rather than after an incident
• Data products packaged through guided wizards, with the data contract generated automatically
• Governed SQL generation, with controls enforced on the query rather than applied afterwards
• Audit trails and real-time observability of governance posture

Ownership and collaboration

• Aimed at both data producers and consumers, with stewardship workflows
• Role-based collaboration so teams own the data they know best
• A semantic layer shared between teams and agents

Integrations and APIs

• Open standards for connecting AI assistants and agents to governed metadata
• Custom AI agents bridging the catalogue and external AI assistants
• BI tool integration through the browser plugin rather than only through APIs

How it runs

• Delivered as a platform with interactive product tours available before contact
• Part of a wider Actian portfolio that still includes analytics and database products
• No published pricing

Pricing

Price on request

Not published. Actian offers interactive product tours and demos rather than a price list, so licensing model and cost both require a sales conversation. Note that the wider Actian portfolio is priced separately; this entry covers the data intelligence platform only.

Vendor pricing page →

Demos and videos

• Actian Data Intelligence Platform Product demo · actian.com (the vendor)

About Actian

Actian is a long-established data vendor whose current lead product is the Actian Data Intelligence Platform, a catalogue and governance platform built on a federated knowledge graph. Its wider portfolio still includes the analytics and database line it is historically known for, sold separately. Public materials emphasise agent access to governed metadata, automated data contracts and a data marketplace, and cite an installed base of 42 million users across more than 20,000 customers, including 25 of the Fortune 100. No pricing is published.

actian.com