Alation Launches AI-Powered CDE Manager to Automate Data Governance

Alation has announced Alation CDE Manager, the first AI-powered solution designed to automate governance of Critical Data Elements. The platform, available now in private beta with general availability expected later this year, uses agentic AI to translate business policies into enforceable data standards without manual intervention.

How It Works

CDE Manager deploys specialized AI agents that automatically monitor critical data, verify quality, track certification status, and flag compliance issues before they impact business operations. The platform connects data catalogs, quality rules, policies, and lineage into a unified system focused on the specific fields and metrics that drive decisions, reporting, and compliance. Business teams can declare outcomes in plain language like "Customer email must be valid and protected," which the system converts into technical controls and enforces across the data landscape.

Addressing the Governance Gap

The announcement targets a persistent challenge facing data organizations: the translation gap between business requirements and technical implementation. According to Gianthomas Volpe, Sr. Director of Product Management at Alation, "Business, risk, and data teams operate in silos with different tools and vocabularies. CDE Manager creates one shared understanding of what trusted data means, then automatically maintains that standard across your entire organization."

Built on Declarative Governance

CDE Manager is the first product built on Alation's Declarative Governance framework, which shifts governance from documentation-focused processes to outcome-focused automation. Rather than manually tracking spreadsheets and chasing down data owners, compliance teams receive continuous assurance with real-time dashboards showing which CDEs meet standards. Early customer HBF Health Limited reports that the platform "streamlined workflows and saved a huge amount of time" through its automated information extraction capabilities.

Availability

Existing Alation customers can access the private beta through their account managers. Organizations new to Alation can explore the CDE Manager product page or review implementation best practices through the company's webinar series featuring case studies from organizations like Aware Super.

Bridging the Governance Translation Gap

Alation has released CDE Manager, a solution designed to automate governance of Critical Data Elements (CDEs) using intelligent AI agents. The platform addresses a persistent challenge in enterprise data management: translating business requirements into enforceable technical policies. Instead of manual tracking and endless spreadsheets, CDE Manager deploys specialized agents that continuously monitor data quality, verify compliance, and flag issues before they impact operations. The solution is built on Alation's Declarative Governance framework, which emphasizes outcomes over documentation. Organizations define what "trusted data" means in business terms, such as "Customer email must be valid and protected," and the system automatically translates these requirements into technical controls. This eliminates the time-consuming back-and-forth between business stakeholders who speak in outcomes, data teams who think in schemas, and compliance teams who operate in audit requirements.

How It Works

CDE Manager connects an organization's data catalog, quality rules, policies, and lineage into a unified automated system. AI agents semantically map CDEs to data assets across the catalog, automatically recommending connected assets from attributes to BI columns. The system applies a configurable risk model rating CDEs as High, Medium, or Low, ensuring governance effort focuses where it matters most while reducing wasted work on low-risk data. Reece Offer, Data Governance Analyst at HBF Health Limited, noted that the platform "streamlined our workflows and saved a huge amount of time" through its ability to extract and format information automatically. When audits arrive or executives question compliance status, teams can provide real-time dashboards showing exactly which CDEs meet standards, complete with full lineage and accountability trails.

Strategic Shift in Governance

According to GT Volpe, Sr. Director of Product Management at Alation, enterprises don't fail at governance because of intent but because they can't translate intent into scalable data management that the whole organization understands. CDE Manager bridges that gap by turning policies and controls into actionable data standards that business, risk, and data teams can all rally around. The solution entered private beta following its November 12, 2025 announcement and will become generally available later this year. Existing Alation customers can contact their account managers to access the beta, while new organizations can explore the interactive demo or review best practices from Aware Super's CDE implementation.