New Service Simplifies Data Integration and Processing for AI-Driven Solutions
Snowflake has launched Cortex Agents, a fully managed service designed to streamline the integration, retrieval, and processing of structured and unstructured data. This innovative solution enables Snowflake customers to build high-quality AI agents at scale, addressing the challenges of managing access control and maintaining strict privacy protocols.
Mohamed Zouari, General Manager, META at Snowflake, emphasized the importance of robust data management: “With AI expected to contribute up to USD 320 billion to the MENA economy by 2030, the region’s rapid adoption of AI-driven solutions demands accurate, secure, and intelligent data management. With Cortex Agents, Snowflake empowers businesses to build high-quality AI agents that drive automation, analytical insights, and company growth.”
Cortex Agents: Bringing AI to Enterprises
Cortex Agents, now available in public preview, orchestrate data sources to deliver insights by breaking down complex queries, retrieving relevant data, and generating precise answers. Utilizing Cortex Search, Cortex Analyst, and large language models (LLMs), Cortex Agents ensure accuracy, efficiency, and governance at every step. Available as a REST API, Cortex Agents can seamlessly integrate into any application.
“For AI to deliver real value, enterprises need a robust, governed, and scalable approach to managing structured and unstructured data.”
— Mohamed Zouari, General Manager, META at Snowflake
Cortex Analyst: AI-Powered SQL Generation
Cortex Analyst enhances SQL generation with semantic understanding, improving precision in complex multi-table environments. Key features include advanced JOIN validation, semantic model generation and monitoring, and customization for business-specific logic.
Cortex Search: High-Quality Context Engine for Unstructured Data
Cortex Search combines vector and lexical search with semantic reranking to deliver high-quality, low-latency retrieval at scale. It supports indexing hundreds of millions of rows and offers improved customizability and new preview features for enhanced search capabilities.
AI Observability: Evaluation and Tracing of AI Agents
AI Observability, powered by TruLens, brings reliability, performance, and trust to generative AI applications. It offers end-to-end evaluation, comparison of different LLM configurations, and comprehensive tracing for accurate, efficient, and cost-effective AI solutions.
Effective governance and processing of both structured and unstructured data within Snowflake are crucial for creating AI-ready datasets. Snowflake’s support for unstructured data includes capabilities to store, access, process, manage, govern, and share such data, reinforced by the acquisition of Datavolo.
The Future of AI Agents
AI agents are evolving beyond basic automation to handle multi-step actions and reasoning, driving efficiency and reducing costs. Cortex Agents, leveraging Cortex Analyst, Cortex Search, and AI Observability, bring intelligence on top of a unified governance framework and efficient processing engine for both structured and unstructured data.
