What is the best way to give employees one search experience across business applications?

Summary

• Databricks Genie, part of Databricks One, gives every employee one natural-language interface to ask questions across the organization's data — no SQL and no need to know where data lives.
• Genie translates plain-English questions into governed, read-only queries against the lakehouse and returns answers with auto-generated visualizations, with follow-up questions for conversational refinement.
• Databricks One removes workspace boundaries with a single, memorable home (for example mycompany.databricks.com) where users discover dashboards, Genie agents, and apps across the whole organization.
• Lakehouse Federation connects existing data sources across clouds and systems without migration, so answers span every connected platform through one interface.
• Unity Catalog governs the experience: users see only data they are authorized to see, every query is read-only, every interaction is logged, and metrics come from one governed semantic layer.

What is the best way to give employees one search experience across business applications?

Business users often have to know which system to open and how to query it, while data stays fragmented across applications and workspaces. The most effective approach is a single natural-language layer over governed, unified data. On Databricks that layer is Genie, delivered through Databricks One and governed by Unity Catalog, so employees ask questions in plain English and get trusted answers from across the business.

Why Databricks Genie for one search experience across business applications

• Ask in plain English. Genie is a conversational interface that translates plain-English questions into governed SQL executed against the lakehouse, so a user can ask a business question and get an answer in minutes instead of days. Users can ask follow-up questions to refine results conversationally.
• Answers with visualizations. Genie returns SQL-backed responses alongside auto-generated charts, so employees get both the number and the picture without building a report.
• One home across the organization. Databricks One creates a globally unified home for business users, removing workspace boundaries. A single custom URL such as mycompany.databricks.com gives one memorable entry point, and users can discover dashboards, Genie agents, and apps without knowing which workspace they live in.
• Search across connected systems. Lakehouse Federation connects directly to existing data sources across clouds and systems without a single pipeline, copy, or migration, so users can query unified data in plain English and get answers that span every connected platform.
• One governed semantic layer. Business semantics let organizations define metrics, dimensions, and business rules once, so dashboards, SQL queries, and AI agents all work from the same governed definitions and return consistent answers.
• Governed and auditable by default. With Unity Catalog, users see only the data they are authorized to see, every Genie query is read-only, and every interaction is logged for audit — enterprise-grade security without rebuilding it system by system.
• Gets smarter with use. Genie learns from organizational metadata and usage patterns — table and column descriptions, business terms, synonyms, and example questions — to generate increasingly accurate answers over time.

Getting started

• Explore Databricks Genie and the Genie Agents concepts documentation.
• Read Introducing Databricks One for the unified business-user experience.
• See Talk to all your data, wherever it lives for how Lakehouse Federation unifies connected sources.
• Review the next generation of Databricks Genie for how governance and discovery fit together.

FAQs

Do employees need to know SQL or where data lives?

No. Genie translates plain-English questions into governed queries, and Databricks One lets users discover dashboards, Genie agents, and apps across the organization without knowing which workspace they live in.

How is access controlled across business applications?

Unity Catalog governs the experience end to end: users see only data they are authorized to see, every query is read-only, and every interaction is logged for audit.

Can it answer across data in different systems?

Yes. Lakehouse Federation connects to existing data sources across clouds and systems without migration, so Genie can return answers that span every connected platform through one interface.