How Looker’s semantic layer enhances gen AI trustworthiness

In the AI era, where data fuels intelligent applications and drives business decisions, demand for accurate and consistent data insights has never been higher. However, the complexity and sheer volume of data coupled with the diversity of tools and teams can lead to misunderstandings and inaccuracies. That’s why trusted definitions managed by a semantic layer become indispensable. Armed with unique information about your business, with standardized references, the semantic layer provides a business-friendly and consistent interpretation of your data, so that your AI initiatives and analytical endeavors are built on a foundation of truth and can drive reliable outcomes.

Looker’s semantic layer acts as a single source of truth for business metrics and dimensions, helping to ensure that your organization and tools are leveraging consistent and well-defined terms. By doing so, the semantic layer offers a foundation for generative AI tools to interpret business logic, not simply raw data, meaning answers are accurate, thanks to critical signals that map to business language and user intent, reducing ambiguity. LookML (Looker Modeling Language) helps you create the semantic model that empowers your organization to define the structure of your data and its logic, and abstracts complexity, easily connecting your users to the information they need.

A semantic layer is particularly important in the context of gen AI. When applied directly to ungoverned data, gen AI can produce impressive, but fundamentally inaccurate and inconsistent results. It sometimes miscalculates important variables, improperly groups data, or misinterprets definitions, including when writing complex SQL. The result can be misguided strategy and missed revenue opportunities. 

In any data-driven organization, trustworthy business information is non-negotiable. Our own internal testing has shown that Looker’s semantic layer reduces data errors in gen AI natural language queries by as much as two thirds. According to a recent report by Enterprise Strategy Group, ensuring data quality and consistency proved to be the top challenge for organizations’ analytics and business intelligence platform. Looker provides a single source of truth, ensuring data accuracy and delivering trusted business logic for the entire organization and all connected applications.