Unlocking the Future of Data with Semantic Technologies

I recently stumbled upon a series of YouTube videos showcasing the construction of Doomsday shelters. Intrigued by the meticulous planning and core principles involved in building these shelters, I couldn't help but draw parallels between doomsday prepping and the challenges organizations face in preparing their data for the future.

In the age of digital transformation, organizations are no longer content with merely integrating existing structured data. We know the lion’s share of business decisions are based on structured data; however, we also know that about 80% of information within an organization is unstructured.

How are organizations prepping for the future of data, if they’re not considering the enormous amount of information that is unstructured as well? The ideal state is to enrich that information—to make it more complete, consumable and trustworthy. But how do you get to that point? Enter Progress Semaphore—a powerful tool designed to simplify complex data through the power of semantics.

Knowledge Management and Doomsday Shelters: A Correlation

Just as Doomsday preppers methodically plan every aspect of their shelters, our customers must take steps to better protect their data against uncertainties and potential disasters.

With the emergence of GenAI and other AI solutions, organizations often think these technologies will do the work for them, causing them to miss key elements, like data bias and hallucinations, and put themselves at greater risk. Safeguards can be put in place to help prevent incidents like the one Zillow experienced when the AI algorithm they used to help them quickly buy and sell homes overinflated home values and caused them to overpay on thousands of home purchases. In the end, this data misstep led to a financial loss of $304M and a staff reduction of 25%.

This is where Progress Semaphore plays a vital role by providing contextual, high-quality, integrated and operational metadata and building a semantic layer across enterprise information, to drive customer experience, product innovation, trusted intelligence and support for AI initiatives.

By simply prepping and adding context and meaning to your data, you can help systems read and communicate more like a human.

Knowledge Modeling: Laying the Foundation

Much like the foundational structure of a Doomsday shelter, Knowledge Model Management (KMM) in Semaphore serves as the bedrock of data organization. KMM allows organizations to build and govern semantic knowledge models—taxonomies, ontologies, controlled vocabularies—that capture the essential concepts, topics and relationships and reflect the language of the organization. Just as a sturdy foundation adds stability to a shelter, KMM supports the integrity and coherence of organizational data.

For many organizations, the prospect of developing a model can be overwhelming. Semaphore Knowledge Model Management simplifies and accelerates model development processes so you can immediately put the model to work within your enterprise.

Knowledge Classification: Organizing the Essentials

In a Doomsday shelter, every item has its place, meticulously organized for easy access and retrieval. Similarly, Classification and Language (CLS) Services in Semaphore help organizations structure and classify their data for efficient retrieval. By leveraging natural language processing, machine learning and semantic models, CLS automatically extracts meaning from structured, unstructured and semi-structured assets, such as documents and data, allowing organizations to derive actionable insights and make informed decisions.

Knowledge Integration: Connecting the Pieces

In the event of a Doomsday scenario, seamless communication and integration are essential for survival. Similarly, Semantic Integration Services (SIS) in Semaphore connect disparate data sources, applications and workflows, providing a unified view of enterprise information and extending it across your information sources. By transforming data into meaningful, actionable intelligence, SIS enables organizations to adapt, innovate and thrive in an ever-changing landscape—extending the use and reach of your AI across the organization.

Semantics Yield Better Information

Organizations strive to analyze and gain insight from their information to drive key business decisions, improve operations and manage regulatory and compliance risk. The need to extract information from internal and external sources and integrate it into existing systems for use in key business decisions is critical to successful business outcomes. Progress Semaphore takes a semantic approach to help organizations unify all information within the enterprise to be used for analysis, to gain insights and to answer questions they could not answer before.

• Semaphore has helped insurance companies analyze years of claim reports to identify behaviors and indicators of fraud, improving the speed and accuracy of claims processing. Discover how Semantic AI has enabled multi-channel tax advisory innovation.
• Pharmaceutical companies automate the process of identifying patterns that indicate unknown side effects of drugs in the market by analyzing adverse event reports received from healthcare providers—replacing a costly, error-prone manual process. Discover how a biotechnology company has leveraged semantics to improve knowledge transfer across all stages of product development and manufacturing.
• Financial institutions examine correspondence and borrower interactions to identify patterns of behavior that indicate potential loan and mortgage default. Discover how Broadridge leveraged semantic technologies to deploy a data fabric at the heart of the company’s service offering for Global Post-Trade Management (GPTM).
• Healthcare providers mine the information found in patient records and doctors’, social workers’ and visiting nurses’ notes to identify patients at risk of hospital readmission. Discover how semantic technologies have helped healthcare providers extract relevant facts from individual data stores and associate them to identify patients at risk.

Read more success stories to explore how our customers have unlocked the full potential of their data.

Preparing for the Future

As the world becomes increasingly complex and unpredictable, organizations must take proactive steps to fortify their data against potential disruptions. Just as Doomsday preppers meticulously plan and prepare for worst-case scenarios, organizations can leverage tools like Progress Semaphore to help keep their data robust, resilient and ready for whatever the future may hold.

In conclusion, the correlation between Doomsday prepping and the core capabilities in Semaphore—modeling, classification and integration—highlights the importance of proactive data management in today's digital age. By laying the foundation, organizing the essentials and connecting the pieces, organizations can navigate uncertain terrain and maintain their competitive edge.

To learn more about semantic technologies and how they can uncover the true potential of your data, download our whitepaper. To explore the future of data and learn from future-minded business leaders and innovators, join us for MarkLogic World tour – Washington D.C.