In today’s digital economy, growth hinges on how effectively companies generate, store, and use sensitive information. That makes artificial intelligence the centerpiece of corporate strategy, with its promise to unlock insights and automation at scale. But AI is only as strong as the data behind it and increasingly, enterprises are realizing the real barrier isn’t the technology itself, but the governance of sensitive data.
This message was underscored in a recent CNBC interview with Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, who spoke candidly about the role of data privacy and security in slowing enterprise AI adoption. His comments highlight exactly why solutions like ALTR’s integration with Databricks Unity Catalog are becoming critical for enterprises that want to harness sensitive data responsibly.
The Bottleneck: Data Governance & Controlling Data Access
When asked why companies struggle to adopt AI at scale, Ghodsi was direct:
“It’s actually the governance of the data that’s the problem. It’s not like we can’t access that data. That data is there. So why are we just not using it then for AI? It’s because of privacy… corporations are super worried about their most sensitive data. They want to be really careful who gets access to it… So then how do you govern that data in a secure, safe way, in a privacy preserving way? At Databricks, we built a whole solution called Unity Catalog that just does that. And it’s actually the number one sort of prerequisite before you can use AI.”
His words aren’t theoretical, they reflect what’s happening inside enterprises today. Just yesterday, I was in a meeting with Information Security and Risk leaders at a global travel company, brought together at the request of their CISO, and the frustration was palpable. This wasn’t an ad-hoc discussion; they had built a dedicated task force to tackle the challenge of AI governance head-on.
Two pain points dominated the conversation. First, AI systems were proliferating across the business faster than anyone could track. Shadow AI was everywhere, teams experimenting with tools outside approved channels, and leadership had no reliable way to limit which systems could be used. Second, both the organization and its Databricks environment had grown so large that enforcing consistent access patterns, or mandating requirements for how AI could safely interact with data, had become nearly impossible.
For this group, the starting point was clear: they needed to establish classification and audit logging inside Databricks to centralize visibility and understand what was really happening with their data. From there, they could begin enforcing compliance by restricting user access, requiring requests to flow through security, and granting approvals only once the right safeguards were in place.
Think about that: a Fortune 500 company, with some of the most advanced security professionals in the industry, was struggling under the weight of AI governance challenges so severe they had to form an internal strike team. It’s proof that even the best-resourced enterprises are feeling the pain of governing sensitive data in the age of AI.
How ALTR Extends Unity Catalog to Accelerate AI Readiness
This is exactly where ALTR steps in. While Unity Catalog gives enterprises the foundation to govern and organize data at scale, ALTR brings the fine-grained access controls, automation, and monitoring required to turn that governance into enforceable security. Together, the two platforms address the exact pain points organizations like this travel company are facing.
Discover & Centralize
ALTR automatically uncovers sensitive data across the Databricks Unity Catalog metastore, surfacing PCI, PII, PHI, and other high-risk data types. With clear classification reports, security teams gain centralized visibility into where sensitive data lives and how it’s being accessed.
Classify & Tag Automatically
ALTR combines built-in classification capabilities with Google DLP–powered auto-tagging to detect and label sensitive data within minutes. These tags become the metadata backbone for Unity Catalog and downstream AI agents, giving them a clear rulebook to follow.
Audit & Monitor Continuously
Every access event is logged and monitored, enabling organizations to see who is touching sensitive data, when, and how. This ongoing visibility not only helps enforce policies in real time but also generates the compliance-ready reporting regulators and boards increasingly demand.
Enforce Access Policies
With ALTR’s no-code, tag-driven access policies, organizations can apply role-based controls and masking to sensitive data, ensuring only authorized users ever see critical information. Policies are pushed down directly to Databricks, preserving query performance while locking down exposure.
This layered approach transforms Unity Catalog into not just a governance solution, but a governance-and-security engine. Enterprises gain both the visibility to understand what’s happening in Databricks and the enforcement capabilities to control it.
The Road Ahead: Building the Backbone for the AI Future
As Ghodsi explained, companies want to use their data, but they’re nervous about it. The winners in this next wave of AI adoption will be the organizations that face that challenge head-on by pairing governance with security.
And while the hype cycle may be cooling, Ghodsi is clear that the real opportunity is only just beginning: “I think there was an over promise and people overinvested and now it’s kind of coming back down. But actually the thing that’s so interesting is that just now the actual use cases are starting to work and they’re actually starting to get deployed.”
With ALTR integrated into Unity Catalog, enterprises don’t have to choose between innovation and compliance. They can unlock sensitive data safely, accelerate AI adoption, and ultimately fuel the growth that only trusted, governed data can deliver.