Databricks launches new tools to transition AI to production

Databricks has announced the introduction of new tools designed to help enterprises transition AI agents from pilot phases to full production with enhanced confidence.

According to Databricks, 85% of global enterprises currently utilise Generative AI (GenAI). However, even advanced models often face challenges in delivering outputs that are business-specific, accurate, and well-governed due to a lack of awareness of enterprise data.

The new suite of tools aims to empower organisations by enabling the deployment of AI agents in mission-critical applications while maintaining accuracy, governance, and user-friendliness. Among the tools introduced is the Mosaic AI Gateway, which provides centralised governance for AI models, facilitating integration and management of both open source and commercial AI models in a single platform.

An additional feature, the AI/BI Genie Conversational API suite, allows developers to embed natural language chatbots into custom-built apps or widely-used productivity tools such as Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, and Slack. This API is stateful, capable of retaining conversation context across multiple interactions, thereby simplifying integration into existing workflows.

The Agent Evaluation Review App has been upgraded to enhance human-in-the-loop workflows, making it easier for domain experts to provide feedback and customise evaluation criteria without the need for spreadsheets or bespoke applications. This tool aims to streamline the feedback process, enabling continuous refinement of AI agent performance.

The launch also includes a new provision-less Batch Inference tool, which simplifies the task of conducting batch inference using a single SQL query. By eliminating the need for infrastructure management, this tool facilitates seamless integration of unstructured data.

Ian Cadieu, Chief Technology Officer of Altana, a Databricks customer, commented on the impact of these tools on their operation: "Batch AI with AI Functions is streamlining our AI workflows. It's allowing us to integrate large-scale AI inference with a simple SQL query - no infrastructure management needed. This will directly integrate into our pipelines cutting costs and reducing configuration burden. Since adopting it we've seen dramatic acceleration in our developer velocity when combining traditional ETL and data pipelining with AI inference workloads."

Craig Wiley, Senior Director of Product for AI/ML at Databricks, elaborated on the difficulties companies face in deploying AI agents for high-value use cases: "Many enterprises still struggle to deploy AI agents in high-value use cases due to concerns around accuracy, governance, and security. For these organisations, it's confidence, not just technology, that presents the biggest hurdle to extracting the full data intelligence benefits of Generative AI. The new tools address these challenges head-on, enabling businesses to move beyond pilots and into full-scale production with AI agents they can trust."

The new tools, including Mosaic AI Gateway, Genie Conversation API suite, Agent Evaluation Review App, and Batch AI, are now available in Public Preview, offering enterprises the opportunity to leverage these capabilities for enhanced AI deployment.