Databricks has made its third acquisition in seven months to enhance its generative AI capabilities, this time acquiring Einblick, a startup that specializes in natural language processing and allows users of all skill levels to work with data. The financial terms of the acquisition, which was announced in a blog post on Jan. 30, were not disclosed.
In June 2023, Databricks acquired MosaicML for $1.3 billion to obtain a platform that enables users to train and secure generative AI models using their proprietary data. This acquisition was followed by another in October 2023, when Databricks agreed to acquire Arcion for $100 million, adding data ingestion and data replication capabilities to develop pipelines for generative AI models and applications.
These acquisitions led to the introduction of the Data Intelligence Platform, the evolution of Databricks’ Data Lakehouse Platform, now in preview. The new platform reflects the company’s focus on making generative AI an essential part of its portfolio.
The Einblick acquisition bolsters Databricks’ generative AI focus with its natural language processing capabilities. The startup uses NLP to translate natural language to code, enabling business users to create and run AI and machine learning models without the need for extensive coding skills.
The acquisition has been seen as a strategic move by industry experts. Einblick’s capabilities can help more employees within organizations use analytics as part of their job, addressing the historical stagnation in analytics use within enterprises due to the complexity of analytics tools.
In addition to its NLP capabilities, Einblick offers a notebook-like analytics and data science environment that has been enhanced with emerging generative AI capabilities, making data science a focal point according to industry analysts.
The acquisition of Einblick is part of a trend in the industry, with other vendors also developing NLP capabilities to enable a wider range of users to work with data and analytics.
The addition of Einblick’s leadership team and technology will be valuable for Databricks, and the next steps for the company following these acquisitions will be to integrate the new capabilities and build the promised Data Intelligence Platform.
Industry experts are looking for concrete examples of how the Data Intelligence Platform will democratize insight through natural language interaction and deliver more integrated capabilities at a lower cost to justify the acquisition and integration of these platforms.
In conclusion, Databricks’ acquisition of Einblick adds significant NLP capabilities to its portfolio, and the company’s focus now should be on integration and development of the promised Data Intelligence Platform.