The Future of the Semantic Layer for BI and AI
Webinar Speaker: Fern Halper, TDWI VP Research, Senior Research Director for Advanced Analytics
Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET
Organizations are racing to adopt AI copilots and unlock self-service insights across multiple BI tools. But without consistent definitions for business metrics and logic, they risk delivering conflicting answers and undermining trust in their data.
It’s time to rethink the semantic layer.
One approach is to shift semantics into the data platform, helping organizations create a single foundation of governed, reusable business context. This can result in clearer KPIs, faster decision-making, and AI that really understands your data. Join TDWI’s VP of Research, Fern Halper, and senior product leaders from Databricks as they discuss the future of the semantic layer.
Topics include:
- Where the industry is headed and how you can stay ahead
- Real-world guidance from senior Databricks product leaders on how to evolve your semantic strategy
- What makes Unity Catalog Business Semantics different from semantic layers in traditional BI models
- How centralized, SQL-native metrics drive consistency across dashboards, AI agents, and data tools
- A live demo of Databricks AI/BI using Unity Catalog Business Semantics to deliver explainable, trusted insights
Guest Speakers
Ken Wong
Senior Director of Product Management
Databricks
Ken Wong is the senior director of product management leading Databricks' analytics and data science products. Prior to Databricks, he was co-founder/CEO at Datajoy and held various product leadership roles at Tableau, Microsoft, and SAP BusinessObjects. Ken has a master’s in engineering and management science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Richard Tomlinson
Director of Product Marketing
Databricks
Richard Tomlinson is director of product marketing at Databricks, where he leads marketing for AI/BI Dashboards and Genie. He has more than 25 years of experience spanning data warehousing, ETL, business intelligence, predictive analytics, and big data platforms. Prior to Databricks, Richard held senior product marketing and product management roles at DataRobot, Arcadia Data, Oracle, Endeca, SAS, Business Objects, and Informix. He earned a BSc in mathematics and statistics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Fern Halper, Ph.D.