Analyst(s): Brad Shimmin
Publication Date: June 30, 2025
With a new transactional database, a free AI-powered BI layer, and a unified data engineering solution, Databricks is aggressively moving to become the single, comprehensive platform for all enterprise data and artificial intelligence (AI). This unified, AI-native strategy directly challenges established market leaders and aims to simplify the entire data lifecycle for the AI era.
Key Points:
- Databricks is entering the transactional database market with Lakebase, a Postgres-based offering designed to unify operational and analytical workloads and support modern AI application development.
- The company is strengthening its platform’s governance core by enhancing Unity Catalog with business metrics, positioning it as the central semantic layer for all data and AI assets.
- With its new free AI/BI tool and no-code Lakeflow Designer, Databricks is making a bold play to democratize data engineering and business intelligence, aiming to own the primary user interface for data insights.
Overview:
At its annual Data + AI Summit, data lakehouse giant Databricks showcased an aggressive strategy to build a comprehensive, open, and AI-native platform. The company is placing long-term bets that will create immediate waves across several well-established markets and set the tone within the hotly contested race toward agentic AI software development.
A cornerstone announcement is Databricks Lakebase, the company’s ambitious entry into the online transactional processing (OLTP) database market. Building on its acquisition of the serverless Postgres platform, Neon, Lakebase is a fully managed Postgres database tailored for AI applications. It differentiates itself by integrating DevOps practices such as instant database branching and ephemeral deployments, which significantly lower operational costs and complexity, overcoming key limitations of traditional transactional databases. By tightly integrating Lakebase with the lakehouse, Databricks is breaking down the historical silos between transactional and analytical systems.
Databricks also reinforced the strategic role of Unity Catalog as the central governance and semantic layer for the entire platform. The General Availability of Unity Catalog Metrics provides a trusted, centralized way to define business KPIs, ensuring consistency and building trust in AI outcomes. This move positions Unity Catalog as a strategic “choke point,” making it the nerve center for governing all data, models, and analytics assets.
To bridge the gap between data integration and insight discovery, Databricks launched Lakeflow, a unified solution for data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration. Complementing this is the new Lakeflow Designer, a no-code, GenAI-powered interface that allows business analysts to build production-quality ETL pipelines, democratizing data engineering and fostering collaboration between business and technical teams.
Finally, the company introduced AI/BI, a new business intelligence offering provided for free. Powered by a conversational assistant, it allows non-technical users to query data using natural language and receive visual answers. Strategically, Databricks views this as a “killer app” to own the user interface for data analytics, much like Microsoft has done with Power BI, giving it a significant competitive advantage.
The full report is available via subscription to Futurum Intelligence’s Data Intelligence, Analytics, and Infrastructure IQ service—click here for inquiry and access.
For more detailed insights from the event, see Databricks’ press releases on Lakebase, Lakeflow Designer, AI/BI, Databricks One, and Free Edition.
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Author Information
Brad Shimmin is Vice President and Practice Lead, Data Intelligence, Analytics, & Infrastructure at Futurum. He provides strategic direction and market analysis to help organizations maximize their investments in data and analytics. Currently, Brad is focused on helping companies establish an AI-first data strategy.
With over 30 years of experience in enterprise IT and emerging technologies, Brad is a distinguished thought leader specializing in data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and enterprise software development. Consulting with Fortune 100 vendors, Brad specializes in industry thought leadership, worldwide market analysis, client development, and strategic advisory services.
Brad earned his Bachelor of Arts from Utah State University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Brad lives in Longmeadow, MA, with his beautiful wife and far too many LEGO sets.
