What is a semantic layer?

As AI continues to drive innovation across all industries, the need for effective data management has never been greater. Enter the semantic layer: a cutting-edge technology solution that simplifies and streamlines the complexity of data from multiple, varied sources, making it accessible and actionable for all teams across an organization. This inclusive approach transforms industries from healthcare to retail, empowering all teams to unlock the full potential of their data and drive business success, now and into the future.

What is a semantic layer?

The term “semantic” refers to the meaning or interpretation of words and phrases within a specific context. In the context of data, a semantic layer serves as a bridge, sitting between raw data sources and end-user tools. It translates complex data into understandable business logic by normalizing disparate data and defining its metrics, dimensions, and relationships using algorithms tailored to the unique needs of an industry.

A semantic layer ensures that data is easily understandable and computable for use in BI tools and queryable for AI and language learning model (LLM) applications. It enables seamless data analysis, ensuring clarity and consistency across the organization and speeding up time-to-insight for non-technical users. 

Additionally, it is built as a scalable foundation for the data future, with a structure that supports the growth and expansion of organizations and industries.

A semantic layer ensures that data is easily understandable and computable for use in BI tools, and queryable for AI and language learning model (LLM) applications.

Why does data need a semantic layer?

Ingesting, structuring, and analyzing data from several sources can overwhelm technical teams, causing bottlenecks that hinder the use of data for timely decision-making and planning. By automatically structuring and modeling inbound data for use across business platforms, a semantic layer solves many of today’s prevalent data challenges. Here are some of the key reasons data-driven organizations require integrated semantic layer technology:

Data integration and consistency – A semantic layer ensures a reliable, unified view of data by standardizing disparate data sources with business-relevant metrics and definitions. This consistency eliminates discrepancies and enables accurate, reliable analysis across teams.

Enhanced data accessibility – A semantic layer transforms complex data into a common business language, making data accessible to non-technical users. This democratization of data empowers all teams to leverage insights in their preferred tools, like Power BI, or for natural language querying (eg. ‘What are my top performing products in X location?’) in language learning models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and Microsoft Copilot. 

Scalability and future-proofing – As organizations grow and data sources multiply, a semantic layer provides a scalable solution that can adapt to increasing data complexity. Consider it a way to safeguard company information in a format that remains flexible and adaptable, ensuring continued effectiveness as new data sources and analytics technologies emerge. 

Enhanced data governance and security – A semantic layer supports robust data governance by maintaining consistent data definitions, helping to reinforce security protocols and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

By automatically structuring and modeling inbound data for use across business platforms, a semantic layer solves many of today’s prevalent data challenges.

Users of a semantic layer

Semantic models benefit both business and technical users, bridging the gap between complex data and actionable insights. By facilitating complex queries and analysis with a pre-built model tailored to an industry (eg Retail), semantic layers eliminate the need for lengthy manual model development. They enable non-technical users to explore and analyze data intuitively with user-friendly terminology, leading to better, all-informed decision-making.

Who oversees the semantic layer?

Data engineers and data architects primarily plan for and oversee the implementation of a semantic layer. IT and data management teams support the semantic layer’s technical infrastructure and ensure its seamless operation. As data sources evolve or new ones become available, these technical teams update and maintain the semantic layer to ensure it remains relevant and effective.

While out-of-the-box semantic models built for a specific industry can significantly reduce the time and costs associated with building and maintaining a semantic layer, technical teams may still need to customize the models to fit their organization's unique needs, and ensure its seamless integration with existing systems.

A semantic layer enables non-technical users to explore and analyze data intuitively with user-friendly terminology, leading to better, all-informed decision-making.

Who uses the semantic layer?

Given that the semantic layer is created to simplify complex data into understandable business logic, the technology can be utilized by a wide range of employees across an organization.

• Business and data analysts – Analysts can spend more time analyzing data and extracting insights rather than cleaning and preparing data. With access to clean, standardized data, they can perform accurate reporting and analysis with the tools of their choice.

• Data scientists – Data scientists can leverage the extensible nature of a semantic layer to build additional models or combine internal and external data sets on a consistent and clean foundation. This flexibility allows them to experiment and innovate more effectively, using reliable data to develop predictive models and machine learning algorithms.

• Supply chain teams – Planning, logistics, and operations team members use the semantic layer to gain insights into inventory management, logistics, and demand planning. By having a unified view of data, these teams can optimize operations, reduce waste, and improve overall efficiency.

• Commercial teams – Both sales and marketing teams greatly benefit from the semantic layer, which gives them access to centralized, real-time sales and marketing data. This enables them to track daily performance, respond strategically, and target and measure better marketing campaigns.

• Executives and decision-makers – Company leaders and decision-makers can rely on the semantic layer to access high-level, accurate data to inform strategic decisions. Simplified access to key business metrics and performance indicators in real time allows them to make data-driven decisions that steer the company toward its goals. The consistency and reliability of the data provided by the semantic layer will continue to prove crucial for effective leadership and planning.

What all of these teams have in common is that they benefit from the semantic layer's fast, accessible, and intuitive nature to facilitate many cutting-edge applications. As the use of LLMs as work tools increases, companies benefit from the reliability of the semantic layer to deliver precise, actionable insights. 

Architecture and components of a semantic layer

The semantic layer contains a sophisticated framework designed to ingest and standardize disparate data and make it more accessible and useful. The key components that make up the semantic layer design include:

Metadata repository – This is where the semantic layer stores and manages data definitions, relationships, business rules, and other metadata that create a foundation for interoperability across an organization.

Query engine – The query engine interprets user queries from tools and applications and translates them into data-specific queries that the underlying data storage systems can execute. This component is essential for enabling non-technical users to perform data analysis tasks and facilitates interaction with AI and LLMs.

Data models – These models are logical structures that organize data in ways that reflect the business context, simplifying user interactions with data. Data models within the semantic layer often include dimensions, measures, hierarchies, and calculations that are relevant to the business and industry. 

Security level – This component manages data access permissions and ensures that users can only access data that they are authorized to view. This provides an additional layer of data security and internal compliance with regulatory requirements.

The semantic layer contains a sophisticated framework designed to ingest and standardize disparate data and make it more accessible and useful.

Semantic layer challenges and costs

Implementing and maintaining a semantic layer can present challenges and costs organizations should consider. While the benefits of a semantic layer are substantial, the process of developing an internal solution can be complex and resource-intensive.

Learning curve – Adopting a new semantic layer solution can require training for teams. Employees must become proficient with new tools and languages, which can temporarily reduce productivity but lead to long-term efficiency gains. 

Complexity of creation – Building a semantic layer from scratch involves dealing with vast amounts of data from multiple sources. Creating accurate and effective data models and business logic tailored to not only an organization's specific needs but also an entire industry’s context is a multifaceted and laborious task that demands specialized expertise and substantial time investment.

Maintenance and updates – Maintaining and updating a semantic layer in-house can be incredibly challenging. It requires frequent updates for all individual data sources, which can quickly accumulate and become overwhelming. 

Outsourced solution – While presenting its own cost, outsourcing the development and management of a semantic layer to specialized providers can mitigate many of these challenges. Out-of-the-box pre-configured solutions for specific industries eliminate the time and costs associated with building a semantic layer from scratch. These solutions are also regularly updated to adapt to evolving data sources and business needs, ensuring continuous relevance and effectiveness.

While the benefits of a semantic layer are substantial, the process of developing an internal solution can be complex and resource-intensive.

A semantic layer for the retail industry 🛒

The retail industry, characterized by several siloed data sources and the need for real-time insights, is particularly well-suited for implementing a semantic layer. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, in particular, manage vast amounts — we’re talking millions, even billions of rows — of data from sales, inventory, marketing, and supply chain operations, making it essential to have a unified and consistent view of information.

Crisp offers a comprehensive semantic layer solution tailored specifically for the retail industry. The next-generation data technology solution addresses the unique challenges faced by CPGs and provides a robust framework for effective and scalable data management and analysis.

Imagine not just asking questions like, “How did snowstorms affect on-time delivery rates in the Northeast in Q4?” figuratively, in querying data, but literally, leveraging your choice of LLM. Crisp’s semantic model makes this possible with its meticulous structure and clearly defined relationships providing the perfect foundation for interaction with AI and LLMs.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, in particular, manage vast amounts — we’re talking millions, even billions of rows — of data from sales, inventory, marketing, and supply chain operations, making it essential to have a unified and consistent view of information.

By transforming disparate retail data into a common language, Crisp’s semantic layer fuels a new era of CPG intelligence, allowing companies to unlock the full potential of their data and drive business success.

Find out more, book a demo today.