Databricks unveils an always-on Genie that alerts staff when it needs a decision

Databricks announced a second generation of its enterprise AI agent Genie on November 11. The company says the new version can keep working on a task, track what is missing and notify a person when it needs a decision. Databricks plans to offer the always-on features through preview and beta programs. The existing Genie is generally available, and the company gave no start date for customer access to the new mode.

The change is in what an employee can delegate. A user sets a goal and the boundaries for the work, and Genie is designed to carry the task forward as new information arrives. Databricks gives the example of watching customer usage and notifying an account team when it changes. The same assignment can stay open after the initial analysis, ready for the next piece of information.

An inbox for decisions

Databricks says the agent can run on a schedule or respond to changes in company data. It can divide work among other agents while the user follows the active jobs and their results in one conversation. From there, a person can redirect a task or stop it.

The priority inbox collects items that need attention. Genie can also send email, keeping updates about the same alert together in one thread. A link in the message takes the employee back to the work in Genie. If a proposed action such as a budget adjustment needs sign-off, Genie can ask for a decision under the approval rules the company has set.

Which numbers and records the agent can use

A company can define a metric such as active customers by the purchases or other actions it counts. Databricks says the agent can use that definition through Genie Ontology, which connects business terms to the data and relationships behind them. The company says its system gives official definitions priority over information inferred from assets such as dashboards and queries. Its release notes also say Pages, which group those definitions by subject, became generally available on November 11. Authorized curators can certify a definition or mark it as deprecated.

A user's permissions and the administrator's tool policies determine what Genie can reach. Databricks says the agent can prepare a request for additional data access for the user to review and send. Administrators and data owners retain approval authority, and actions leave an audit trail. The company's Genie budget documentation says that alerts and blocking use near-real-time estimates, so the final billed amount can differ from a configured threshold.

The connections already available

Databricks separately documented new ways to ask questions of the existing Genie on November 11. Its ChatGPT plugin and Claude connector let employees ask about company data from those assistants. An administrator sets up the connection for the organization, and each user signs in with a Databricks account. The request is still subject to the user's data permissions. The connected assistant can send Genie a full question or ask for a definition and continue the analysis itself. Databricks says Genie returns sources with its answer. Supported clients can also show charts directly in the conversation.

The release notes also list November 9 as the date the Microsoft Teams and Slack apps became generally available. Employees can ask a data question by messaging the app directly or mentioning it in a conversation. A beta Genie One desktop app for Windows followed on November 11, giving users access to existing threads, documents and Genie Agents from a dedicated window.

Databricks says the always-on agent uses its own computing resources inside a customer's existing Databricks environment. The announcement did not identify the first customers eligible for the preview or give separate pricing for the new mode.