Databricks releases Genie Ontology, a shared layer for agents

Databricks, a data platform company, announced that Genie Ontology is available to all customers. It is a shared layer of business meaning that AI agents make and use. Agents learn from dashboards, queries and notebooks that teams have. Persons control the exact definitions, such as recognized revenue. Databricks says the layer also works for agents outside Databricks.

How it works

Agents keep what they learn as snippets, such as formulas and business rules. A method called OntoRank picks the most trusted context for each question. It weighs authority, certification, skill of the authors and recency. Agents such as ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot get it through Genie MCP.

The numbers

Databricks and Turing made the test for an invented UK energy supplier. Genie used less than half the tokens and was three to four times faster. The two rival agents have no names.

What is not known

The test shows a set-up where teams collected much knowledge. Databricks did the test. It gives no results for other firms. It tells customers to do the same test.

Insight: The fight is to own the business context

Databricks says IT must own the layer. It opens the layer to ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot. Related stories show Google saying that its Knowledge Catalog is on by default in Gemini. This reads as a race to own the layer that all agents read. The first one in use may set the definitions. Leaders must select the owner.