News
CData Presents: Foundations for AI · November 5, 2026
Report
New benchmark: 22 AI models, one correct answer, a 178× cost spread
 

Connected data. Right model. Exact context. Controlled cost

Everything enterprise AI depends on, governed from the prompt down to the record.

Trusted by global teams connecting data and AI at scale
GSK
Palantir
Anthropic
OpenAI
SAP
ServiceNow
Microsoft
Oracle
Adobe

The AI gateway between people, agents, systems, and models

Agents and individuals go to work on your connected SaaS apps, databases, and on-premises systems, with policy enforced at the record and every request routed to the right model.

Enterprise MCP Connectivity to any AI Platform
Flag Q2 deals slipping past close date by more than 14 days.
Claude
Loaded tools, used Connect AI MCP integration
query_pipeline
Result
Done

8 deals are slipping past close by 14+ days—$1.2M in exposure. The largest is Datacore at $185K, now 31 days past its original close date.

Reply to Claude…
Sonnet 4.5

Accurate answers from any model, for less

The gateway knows what you mean by pipeline, burn rate, on-hand inventory, or open headcount. That context travels with every request to any model, at the lowest token cost, governed to the record.


Gateway

One gateway for every AI connection

Explore the gateway
Control

Control at every step of the AI workflow

See governance controls
Context

Context that compounds with every request

Learn about context
Connect

Hundreds of connectors, built by CData

Browse data connectors

Better answers at a fraction of the cost

In CData Labs studies, Connect AI answered 98.5% of 378 real prompts correctly, against 65% to 75% for other MCP approaches. All 22 models tested got it right—so an economy-tier model does the job at 178x less cost.

Trust Every Answer

98.5%

accuracy rate

Connect AI 98.5%
Other MCP providers 65–75%

98.5% correct vs. 65–75% for other MCP providers on the same queries—because every request is grounded in your schema and business context first.

Spend Fewer Tokens

97.6%

fewer tokens spent

Tokens consumed per query
Connect AI — 2.4% Raw data access — 100%

Queries resolve server-side and return only the answer—97.6% fewer tokens than handing agents raw data.

Use the Right Model

178×

difference in model cost


The same correct answer, up to 178× apart in cost. Connect AI controls for accuracy and safety, so model choice becomes a cost decision without tradeoffs.

The Difference

Enterprise MCP connectivity changes how every request executes

Most AI gateways sit in front of MCP servers someone else built—they route requests and log results, but run on what that server exposes. Connect AI ships with hundreds of CData-built MCP servers, so it knows the fields, relationships, and rules behind every connection: policy holds at the record, data is handled before the model sees it, and what the gateway learns stays with you.

The same CData connectivity powers Google, Palantir, Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, and ServiceNow, and thousands of enterprise customers run on it today.

Google
Palantir
Salesforce
Microsoft
SAP
ServiceNow
ONE REQUEST, EXECUTED END-TO-END LIVE
PROMPT HITS THE GATEWAY
"What enterprise revenue is at-risk this quarter?" arrives at the Connect AI gateway from an approved AI tool.
MODEL ROUTED
The gateway reads intent—a complex, multi-source financial question—and routes it to a stronger model.
CONTEXT INTERPRETED
The context engine interprets the prompt through the context graph: the semantic definition of "at-risk" and "revenue," and where that data lives.
SOURCES & TOOLS SELECTED
Salesforce, NetSuite, and ServiceNow are selected, and schema-aware toolkits are loaded from the governed catalog.
IDENTITY & POLICY CHECKED
The agent acts as the named user. SSO maps the caller's credentials into each source, and ABAC/RBAC policies are checked before a row is touched.
DATA PULLED
One federated request runs live across Salesforce, NetSuite, and ServiceNow—only the rows this user is allowed to see.
JOINED & DOWN-SELECTED
Connect AI joins pipeline, invoice, and case data and filters it down at the source—no copies, no raw dumps.
CONDENSED SET TO MODEL
Only the condensed, calculated at-risk revenue set routes to the model—fewer tokens, faster answer.
RESULT DELIVERED
The user gets the answer: $3.4M at risk this quarter, with the accounts and reasons behind it.
AUDIT LOGGED
One entry links the answer back to the prompt, context, model, tools, and policy decisions on every interaction.
LEARNINGS ADDED
When the user refines how "at-risk" is defined, the fix writes back to the context graph—every future request gets it.

Production AI starts and scales with CData

Get started and keep governance as you scale.


Govern AI that's already running

Put the agents and tools your teams use behind the gateway. Every request carries an identity, stays in scope, and gets logged.

Identity Runs as the requester

Tools Scoped agent access

Audit Every request logged

Start small, scale to thousands

Start with one team, then roll out company wide with user provisioning, managed auth, and SSO built-in.

Hundreds of sources, ready to use

Connect your databases, SaaS apps, and files to the AI tools your teams work in.

Salesforce
Snowflake
SQL Server
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Oracle
SharePoint
ServiceNow
HubSpot
Jira
Dynamics 365
BigQuery
SAP
Redshift
Amazon S3

+ hundreds more sources

Proven in production

CData runs critical data workflows for internal teams—and ships as embedded connectivity inside customer-facing products.

More ways to solve your data needs with CData

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Connect AI Gateway

The managed AI gateway for the enterprise—connecting users, agents, and models with hundreds of sources. Apply context to every request for higher accuracy, and lower token cost, governed down to the record.

Connect AI Logo

CData Sync

Continuous, change-aware replication from on-prem and cloud sources into Snowflake, Databricks, and Fabric. Incremental CDC keeps volumes current without straining production.

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CData Embed

Ship white-labeled, enterprise-grade connectivity inside your product—hundreds of sources powering your AI features with passthrough auth and audit trails.

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CData CLI

The CData CLI gives Cursor, Claude Code, and other AI coding assistants the schemas and connection wiring they need to generate accurate, runnable code against CData drivers, so the app your agent writes works the first time.

Python SDK

DB-API 2.0. Connect, run SQL, get rows. Drop it into any Python app or notebook to read and write live data across hundreds of sources with pandas, SQLAlchemy, and the tools you already use.

Put AI to work in your business

Connected data, the right model, and exact context on every request—governed from the prompt down to the record.