Salesforce, Snowflake & More Get Behind Open Data Standards

A newly formed consortium of technology companies has come together to launch the Open Semantic Interchange (OSI), an open-source initiative designed to standardise how semantic metadata is defined and shared across different platforms.

The group features some of the biggest names in the tech sector today, including Snowflake, Salesforce, dbt Labs and RelationalAI, and has the backing of financial services giant BlackRock.

The OSI initiative addresses what the companies all see as a fundamental barrier to the adoption of AI. That is, the lack of consistent data semantics across different tools and platforms.

The case for standardisation

With the OSI, the aim is to create a vendor-neutral specification that ensures business logic remains consistent across all AI and business intelligence applications.

In essence, the companies want to ensure that they're all running on the same fuel and reading from the same hymn sheet.

Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake, sees the initiative as an industry-wide solution rather than anything to do with competition.

"At Snowflake, we've long believed that interoperability and open standards are essential to unlocking the full potential of AI with your data," he says.

"With the Open Semantic Interchange initiative, we are proud to be leading the charge alongside our partners to solve a foundational challenge for AI – the lack of a common semantic standard."

The participating companies argue that current fragmented approach to data in the sector only serves to create confusion and slow down AI adoption by forcing organisations to reconcile incompatible data across multiple platforms.

BlackRock's support

BlackRock's involvement signals potential adoption in financial services, where data consistency is particularly critical.

Diwakar Goel, Global Head of Aladdin Data at BlackRock, highlights the initiative's relevance to investment management.

"At BlackRock, we're constantly seeking ways to enhance data interoperability and drive innovation for our clients," Diwakar said.

"The Aladdin platform unifies the investment management process through a common data language across public and private markets, helping clients unlock value and scale."

The financial giant's participation suggests the initiative could gain traction in highly regulated industries where semantic consistency affects compliance and risk management.

Uniting the tech sector

Beyond the founding members, the initiative has attracted interest and participation from companies like Alation, Atlan, Blue Yonder, Cube, Elementum AI, Hex, Honeydew, Mistral AI, Omni, Select Star, Sigma and ThoughtSpot.

Ryan Segar, Chief Product Officer at dbt Labs, frames the project as something that could reshape tech infrastructure going forward.

"Our focus at dbt Labs has always been to empower data teams to work more efficiently," he says.

"We see the Open Semantic Interchange as a natural extension of this, as it aims to solve the foundational problem of siloed and incompatible data semantics."

Southard Jones, Chief Product Officer at Tableau, describes the framework as a piece of essential infrastructure for AI applications.

"The future of AI depends on trust – and trust starts with consistent, reliable data," he explains.

Enforcing new standards

The initiative faces the typical challenges of industry standardisation efforts, including encouraging widespread adoption across competing vendors and ensuring the specification meets diverse enterprise requirements.

Success will largely depend on whether major cloud platforms and analytics vendors beyond the founding members choose to implement the standard.

The open-source approach may help drive adoption by removing licensing barriers, though enterprises will need to weigh implementation costs against potential benefits of improved data consistency.

The timing coincides with increased enterprise focus on AI governance and data quality as organisations scale AI implementations.