Databricks Boosts Natural Language Processing Capabilities With Latest Acquisition

The data lake platform giant is acquiring startup Einblick, founded by MIT and Brown University researchers, that is developing AI-based technology for translating natural language questions into code, charts and models.

Databricks has acquired Einblick, a pioneer in natural language processing technology that will expand the query capabilities of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to a broader audience of users.

Einblick’s founders, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and Brown University in Providence, R.I., will be joining Databricks, the company said in a blog post announcing the acquisition. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Einblick was founded in 2019 by Emanuel Zgraggen, the company’s CEO, Philipp Eichmann and others with the goal of leveraging artificial intelligence and natural language processing to enable non-technical users to glean advanced data insights from systems such as Databricks’ data lake system.

“When we founded Einblick, our goal was to empower companies to do more with data, by creating the easiest and most collaborative data platform,” Zgraggen said in the blog post. “Today marks a significant milestone as we join forces with Databricks to further our mission. I am thrilled to embark on this new journey with a company whose mission is to simplify and democratize data and AI.”

Einblick develops an AI-native data notebook that makes it possible to build data queries – even entire data workflows – using a single sentence. The software includes techniques for translating natural language questions into the code, charts and models needed to generate insights, according to the Databricks blog posted by CEO Ali Ghodsi, Director of Engineering – Workspace Ted Tomlinson and other Databricks executives.

“The next wave of data tools must also understand more than general language to work well, they need to understand the jargon and semantic information specific to each company,” the blog says. “By joining forces with Databricks, the ideas behind Einblick can be more powerfully extended through deep integration with the underlying data catalog.”

Databricks said it will incorporate Einblick’s technology into the Databricks platform “enabling organizations to democratize data intelligence and create the next generation of data and AI applications with quality, speed and agility.” The company did not provide a specific timeline other than to hint that more details would be released “in the company months.”

Databricks has been active on the acquisition front. In June of 2023 it struck a deal to buy generative AI platform startup MosaicML for $1.3 billion. In September the company raised $500 million in a Series I funding round that provided the company with significant financial resources for future acquisitions.