Snowflake, in collaboration with Salesforce, BlackRock, dbt Labs, RelationalAI, and a coalition of industry leaders, has launched the Open Semantic Interchange (OSI) initiative a first-of-its-kind open-source effort to create a universal semantic framework for data. The initiative aims to resolve one of the most persistent challenges in AI and business intelligence (BI): fragmented and inconsistent data semantics across tools and platforms.
The OSI introduces a vendor-neutral semantic specification, designed to standardize how business logic and metadata are defined and exchanged. By doing so, it ensures interoperability across AI and BI applications, enabling organizations to adopt best-of-breed technologies while preserving consistent, trustworthy metrics.
“At Snowflake, we’ve long believed that interoperability and open standards are essential to unlocking the full potential of AI with your data,” said Christian Kleinerman, EVP of Product at Snowflake. “With the Open Semantic Interchange initiative, we are proud to be leading the charge alongside our partners to solve a foundational challenge for AI — the lack of a common semantic standard.”
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The initiative’s goals include enhancing cross-platform interoperability, accelerating adoption of AI and BI by restoring trust in data-driven insights, and reducing operational overhead caused by conflicting definitions. By replacing siloed approaches with a shared specification, OSI gives organizations a foundation for more consistent governance, faster deployment, and reliable insights.
Industry leaders such as Alation, Atlan, Blue Yonder, Cube, Hex, Mistral AI, Sigma, and ThoughtSpot are among the growing list of partners backing OSI.
Echoing the importance of the effort, Southard Jones, Chief Product Officer at Tableau, described OSI as “the Rosetta Stone for business data,” while dbt Labs’ Chief Product Officer Ryan Segar emphasized that the framework “solves the foundational problem of siloed and incompatible data semantics.” BlackRock’s Diwakar Goel added that the initiative will “accelerate the adoption of AI and business intelligence applications across the financial industry.”
By aligning around an open, vendor-neutral standard, OSI participants aim to remove one of the biggest barriers to AI readiness, paving the way for greater trust, scalability, and innovation in the data-driven economy.