Analytics and Data Science News for the Week of April 18; Updates from Alteryx, Salesforce, Tableau & More

Solutions Review Executive Editor Tim King curated this list of notable analytics and data science news for the week of April 18, 2025.

Keeping tabs on all the most relevant analytics and data science news can be a time-consuming task. As a result, our editorial team aims to provide a summary of the top headlines from the last week in this space. Solutions Review editors will curate vendor product news, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital funding, talent acquisition, and other noteworthy analytics and data science news items.

For early access to all the expert insights published on Solutions Review, join Insight Jam, a community dedicated to enabling the human conversation on AI.

Analytics and Data Science News for the Week of April 18, 2025

AIS Unveils New SIMS Data Agent

With tip-of-the-spear technology, the SIMS Data Agent is designed to allow free-flowing conversations to engage end users with their data. This innovation marks a significant milestone for AIS, which is known for its commitment to innovating at the forefront of AI meets BI technology.

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Altair Partners with Databricks

This collaboration marks a milestone in advancing accessible, scalable, and impactful AI and machine learning solutions – paving the way for transformative innovation and enabling businesses to realize the full potential of their data for years to come.

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Bauplan Launches with $7.5 Million in Funding

Bauplan offers a serverless runtime that processes large datasets directly on object storage in pure Python. Developers can build powerful applications using simple serverless Python functions and familiar git-like concepts like branch, commit, and merge.

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Databricks Acquires Fennel

Integrating Fennel’s capabilities into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform will help customers quickly iterate on features, improve model performance with reliable signals and provide GenAI models with personalized and real-time context — all without the overhead and cost of managing complex infrastructures.

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Enterra Releases New EDERS Tool

EDERS is built on Enterra’s Autonomous Decision Science Platform, which enables organizations to autonomously analyze data, predict outcomes, and execute optimized decisions with high accuracy across complex business operations.

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Exaforce Raises $75 Million for Agentic AI SOC Operations

Founded by tech leaders with multiple successes and extensive expertise in AI and cybersecurity at companies such as Google, F5, and Palo Alto Networks, Exaforce has developed the industry’s first multi-model AI for solving challenges in security and operations.

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NowVertical Debuts DataCatalyst on Microsoft Azure

It enables seamless, secure, and real-time data movement, cutting time-to-value on data products by up to 50% and reducing integration costs by up to 30 percent, laying the essential groundwork for Generative AI, automation, and real-time analytics.

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Salesforce Unveils Tableau Next with AI Agents

Salesforce’s Tableau Next introduces a new approach to business intelligence, evolving its flagship analytics platform with agentic analytics to address this challenge. This innovative, AI-powered solution simplifies and accelerates data interaction, empowering organizations to uncover insights, automate visualizations, and drive impactful business outcomes.

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Expert Insights Section

Watch this space each week as our editors will share upcoming events, new thought leadership, and the best resources from Insight Jam, Solutions Review’s enterprise tech community where the human conversation around AI is happening. The goal? To help you gain a forward-thinking analysis and remain on-trend through expert advice, best practices, predictions, and vendor-neutral software evaluation tools.

AI Won’t Replace You, But Lack of Soft Skills Might: Insight Jam Set to Host Skiilify’s Paula Caligiuri, PhD and Intelligent Automation Leader Doug Shannon on May 1

Join us for a special virtual event as we unveil the results of Skiilify’s newest study: AI Won’t Replace You—But Lack of Soft Skills Might. Based on insights from 217 tech professionals, the survey reveals a growing skills gap in resilience, curiosity, tolerance of ambiguity, and other core competencies that are critical for success in an AI-driven world.

Register free on LinkedIn

Solutions Review On-Location – What to Expect at Safe Software’s The Peak of Data and AI 2025 May 6-8

The Peak of Data and AI is the premier event for data and AI innovators, hosted by the creators of FME—the only All-Data, Any-AI Platform. Over three transformative days, you’ll explore the power of data integration and AI. From creating workflows to building AI agents, data integration and AI drive efficiency and deliver unprecedented insights.

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Solutions Review Set to Host Alteryx for Exclusive Show on How Fueling AI Starts With Your Data on May 21

In this webinar, we’ll show how Alteryx empowers business users to access, prepare, and analyze data directly within platforms like Databricks or Snowflake—no code required and full governance intact. You’ll see how to go from raw data to AI-ready in minutes, not months.

Register free on LinkedIn

NEW Episode of The Digital Analyst with John Santaferraro Featuring Wayne Eckerson: In the Data Trenches

They discuss persistent data management challenges that organizations face, including finding data, accessing it, and ensuring its trustworthiness. Wayne emphasizes the critical importance of proper data governance, the need for both centralized and distributed data architectures, and how AI will transform data management without replacing human decision-making.

Watch on YouTube

SR Expert @ Insight Jam Bob Eve Previews the Exclusive April 18 Jam Session: Is it Time to Rethink How we Connect Our Data & Apps?

Given the changing landscape and the opportunities new technologies and use cases afford, IT leaders must continuously evaluate and improve how their organizations connect their data and applications. To give you a head start on this initiative, we have brought together four experts on Friday, April 18, 2025, Insight Jam Session: Connections: Fun in the New York Times, Essential for Evolving Analytics and AI Apps.

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SR Expert @ Insight Jam Monica Kay Royal Writes: Why AI is Not Taking Your Job

As an auditor, I know that you have to double and triple check processes to ensure that they are working appropriately, to the standards that have been established, and are compliant with applicable regulations. That means a human always needs to be present to verify all of this. Let’s talk about the concept of Human in the Loop.

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SR Expert @ Insight Jam Dr. Joe Perez Reports on Snapping into Unexpected Insights

You heard that right. A shrimp, a 50 mm-long marine creature, is helping scientists work toward the holy grail of energy generation. It’s a story as strange as it is inspiring, and it perfectly illustrates the power of finding unexpected connections, whether you’re designing a fusion reactor or analyzing a dataset.

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SR Expert @ Insight Jam Samir Sharma Writes: Start with the Use Case or Don’t Start at All

I know you have heard it all before and it’s a familiar story that you read in yearly reports or you might have been privy in boardrooms. What I am alluding to are the grand declarations about becoming “data-driven,” which is typically followed by ambitious investments in platforms, talent, and large elongated transformation programs.

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For consideration in future data science news roundups, send your announcements to the editor: [email protected].