Informatica adds to Claire lineup of GenAI capabilities

New capabilities

Through natural language processing (NLP) and automation, generative AI has the potential to make workers better informed and more efficient. In addition, it can make complex technology easier to use.

As a result, since OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT marked significant improvement in generative AI capabilities, many enterprises have increased their investments in generative AI development, and technology vendors have added generative AI capabilities to make their platforms easier to use.

While Informatica provides tools that help customers develop their own generative AI applications, its Claire lineup is designed to simplify using the vendor's platform.

Claire Copilot for data integration enables users to build data pipelines using natural language, receive context-aware recommendations during development and automate laborious documentation. With the copilot, users can reduce the time it takes to develop a data pipeline from weeks to as little as 30 minutes, according to Pratik Parekh, Informatica's senior vice president and general manager of data and analytics.

Claire Copilot for iPaaS helps users create multistep integrations between applications and produce summaries with a natural language interface. Like the copilot for data integration, it can significantly save time in integrating applications, according to Parekh.

The Claire GPT integration with Informatica's MDM capabilities enables NLP-based metadata searches.

Because the Claire capabilities address efficiency and ease of use, they are valuable, according to Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, now part of Omdia.

"This release is significant because it introduces new generative AI-powered features ... which can meaningfully improve productivity, simplify complex tasks and speed up AI adoption," he said.

In addition to aiding customers, the new Claire capabilities show that Informatica is keeping pace with competing data management vendors in the race to provide users with generative AI tools, Catanzano continued.

"Its broad integration of Claire Copilot and GPT across multiple products, with NLP interfaces and automation, shows it is embedding GenAI in practical, user-friendly ways rather than as a superficial add-on," he said. "This is what organizations want to see."

Beyond the new Claire capabilities, Informatica's Spring 2025 release includes the launch of new features that aim to make it easier for customers to develop customized generative AI applications, according to Parekh.

AI-powered unstructured data processing better enables users to access and operationalize unstructured data such as text and images to train models and applications. Prebuilt process templates for integrating with AI development environments such as Amazon Bedrock, Databricks Mosaic AI and Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service make it easier for users to develop custom applications.

"All of the capabilities are either supporting customers' AI journey or Informatica's use of AI to help customers with their data management activities," Parekh said.

Regarding the impetus for developing the new features, providing AI capabilities that make users more efficient and reduce the time for customers to get value from their data were drivers, he continued.

Although the Claire features make it easier to navigate Informatica's platform and execute previously complex tasks, the unstructured data processing capabilities might be more significant, according to Bond.

"While all the enhancements are great improvements, I find the expansion into making structure out of unstructured data very interesting," he said.

Many other vendors similarly provide tools to help customers access unstructured data to train AI, though each is doing so in slightly different ways, Bond continued.

"As with AI, how each company is doing it varies," he said. "It will be interesting to see what methods become the most prominent."

Looking ahead

The Claire copilots for data integration and application integration are expected to be generally available when Informatica hosts its user conference May 13-15, according to Parekh.

The vendor's next developments will focus on agentic AI, he continued. Agents can not only respond to user queries and instructions, but also act autonomously to surface insights and take on certain repetitive tasks.

"You can expect a lot of announcements around agents and agentic architecture," Parekh said.

Informatica is prudent to focus on agentic AI, according to Bond. While copilots are significant, they are no longer the cutting edge of generative AI. Among competitors, Alation already unveiled agentic AI capabilities.

"Informatica continues to innovate, and I expect we will soon hear about Claire agents," Bond said. "As Claire becomes smarter and learns more about how humans do these activities, it may not be long before it can do some on its own."

Catanzano, meanwhile, suggested that Informatica could make expanded cross-cloud interoperability and deeper AI-driven data quality monitoring parts of its roadmap. In addition, with AI development exploding, Informatica could expand its AI governance capabilities.

"Further investment in AI governance and explainability will help customers trust and scale their AI initiatives," Catanzano said.

Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for Informa TechTarget and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.