Reltio update delivers new AI-powered matching capabilities
The data unification vendor's latest AI tool is a prebuilt customer data matching tool that uses LLMs and machine learning to help users develop more complete customer profiles.
The latest Reltio platform update advances the vendor's AI capabilities beyond natural language processing to include its core data unification capabilities.
Like many data management and analytics vendors, Reltio developed an AI-powered assistant that enables users to work with their data using natural language rather than code. Reltio Intelligent Assistant was included in an early 2024 platform update and is similar to tools from peers such as Informatica.
Reltio's new update, launched Monday, includes the general availability of Flexible Entity Resolution Networks, or FERN. An AI-powered data matching engine built using pretrained large language models (LLMs), FERN is designed to enable users to match customer data so they can develop a more complete view of each customer.
In addition to FERN, Reltio's platform update is highlighted by new automated customer segmentation capabilities in Customer 360, Reltio's AI-powered platform for customer data.
With its focus on AI and automation to reduce time-consuming tasks and make users more efficient, Reltio's update is significant for customers, according to Doug Henschen, an analyst at Constellation Research.
Reltio is pushing AI innovation in this release with both dynamic segmentation and the FERN customer data matching engine. In both cases, it's using AI to be more responsive to changing business conditions while also augmenting humans by eliminating tedious manual work steps.
Doug HenschenAnalyst, Constellation Research
"Reltio is pushing AI innovation in this release with both dynamic segmentation and the FERN customer data matching engine," he said. "In both cases, it's using AI to be more responsive to changing business conditions while also augmenting humans by eliminating tedious manual work steps."
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Reltio is a master data management vendor whose platform is geared toward helping customers unify their data. In addition to Informatica, competitors include specialists such as Semarchy and Stibo Systems, as well as more broad-based vendors including Boomi, SAP and Tibco.
In June, the vendor's platform update included prebuilt master data management capabilities with industry-specific tools and, like its October update, features aiming to improve segmentation. More recently, in August, Reltio unveiled an integration with Collibra designed to help joint customers better discover and govern data assets across different organizational domains.
Platform update
Data from a single customer can be difficult to match to develop a complete profile and tailor sales and marketing efforts to best appeal to that customer.
With customers sometimes having multiple accounts, sometimes using a middle initial or abbreviating a street address but not doing so other times, and multiple members of a household with accounts, , it can be close to impossible to discover all data about a single customer, considering that enterprises collect billions of data points.
Matching data is therefore onerous for humans, a painstaking process that consumes a lot of time. And given how difficult it can be to match data, even after hours of effort, customer profiles could be missing plenty of potentially valuable data. Even rule-based matching that automates customer profiling misses data that could be used to better inform personalized marketing efforts.
FERN is designed to solve customer matching problems, saving potentially hundreds of hours of work and improving matching accuracy.
The new Reltio tool is prebuilt, meaning no model training is required on the part of the user. It uses LLMs and machine learning-based matching capabilities that discover, define and configure customer data so it can be integrated to form a complete customer view.
In addition to FERN, Reltio's update features improved AI-powered audience segmentation capabilities in Reltio Customer 360, including segments that evolve based on customer behaviors and needs such as purchases, claims and call center interactions. The segmentation capabilities are aimed at enabling users to better develop audience segments that improve customer experience, retention and growth.
"Dynamic segmentation and the FERN customer data matching engine both stand out," Henschen said. "In both cases, what's promised is faster, better results."
Beyond the AI-powered capabilities, Reltio's update addresses data security and data governance.
The new security features are aimed at strengthening security for core enterprise data. Reltio already offer single sign-on and client credential verification. Now, it is adding multi-factor authentication. Regarding data governance, a new integration with Microsoft Purview Data Governance is designed to simplify discovery of trusted data assets for reuse and help organizations develop data products that can be shared across the enterprise to inform decisions and actions.
Regarding the impetus for developing the new features in Reltio's latest update, Venki Subramanian, the vendor's senior vice president of product management, said it came from a mix of customer feedback and observing market trends.
For example, FERN resulted from Reltio's own observations about the power of LLMs and the growing need for tools that improve efficiency. The integration with Microsoft Purview Data Governance -- and recent integration with Collibra -- was driven by conversations with customers.
"Ultimately, our mission is continually innovating and providing capabilities that help our customers stay ahead of the curve," Subramanian said.
Reltio is a master data management specialist whose platform enables customers to unify their data.
Looking ahead
With Reltio's latest update now available, the vendor plans to continue focusing on the combination of data unification and AI by adding capabilities that enable customers to build their own AI-powered features fueled by trusted, unified data, according to Subramanian.
In addition, akin to its integrations with data governance platforms, the vendor's roadmap includes adding more integrations that enable its users to develop a data management and analytics ecosystem with Reltio at its core, Subramanian continued.
"Our focus remains on delivering a high-performance, enterprise-grade platform that supports all business-critical operations," he said.
Henschen, meanwhile, said that Reltio's recent focus on delivering AI-powered capabilities has given it a competitive advantage over some of its peers -- at least in the present, given the pace of AI innovation and how quickly vendors are now pumping out AI-powered capabilities.
With not only FERN and Customer 360 but also Reltio Intelligent Assistant, the vendor has launched tools that use AI to make its users more efficient and potentially more profitable. And it's doing so at a pace faster than competitors such as Informatica that have a broader data management focus and thus tend not to innovate as quickly in niches such as master data management and customer 360 specialists, according to Henschen.
"I see Reltio as a master data management-focused innovator," he said. "There are other innovative MDM-focused vendors … but with these announcements, Reltio seems to be raising the bar -- for now at least -- on AI innovation."
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
