What exactly is a semantic layer and why does Snowflake need one? +
A semantic layer is the business logic layer that sits between your raw Snowflake data and the people (or AI) querying it. It defines what "Revenue" means, how "Customer" relates to "Order," and which metrics are the canonical versions across your organization. Without it, every team queries the same tables and gets different answers — and every AI model guesses at meanings it doesn't know. Semantiqa creates this layer automatically from your existing Snowflake schemas.
What does "silence over hallucination" actually mean in practice? +
When a business user or AI agent asks a question that touches an undefined metric or an unmapped relationship, Semantiqa surfaces the gap — it flags the undefined concept and prompts your team to define it — rather than generating a confident but wrong answer. This is the opposite of how most AI tools behave. For finance, regulatory, and executive reporting, this distinction is critical: a flagged unknown is recoverable; a confidently wrong answer is not.
How is Semantiqa different from just using Snowflake Cortex? +
Snowflake Cortex provides the AI processing layer — the model that answers questions. Semantiqa provides the semantic foundation that Cortex (and every other AI tool) depends on for accurate answers. Without Semantiqa, Cortex guesses at business definitions from raw schema metadata. With Semantiqa, it has governed, canonical metric definitions to work from. The analogy: Cortex is the engine. Semantiqa is the GPS map. You need both.
Does Semantiqa require any engineering setup or ongoing maintenance? +
Minimal setup, near-zero ongoing maintenance. After a one-time install from Snowflake Marketplace (2–3 minutes), you point Semantiqa at a schema and it does the rest — building semantic views, mapping relationships, deploying AI agents. Crucially, Semantiqa auto-adapts as your schemas evolve, so the semantic layer stays current without manual updates to YAML files or dbt models.
Does my data or schema information leave Snowflake? +
No. Semantiqa is a 100% Snowflake Native App. Every analysis, semantic generation, and AI agent interaction happens entirely within your Snowflake account. Your data never moves to Kloudgen's servers or any external system. This means no security review is required, no NDA is needed, and your CISO doesn't need to approve Semantiqa as a third-party vendor — it operates within your existing Snowflake trust boundary.
Can business users with no SQL knowledge actually use this? +
Yes — that's the whole point of Auto Agent mode. Sales managers, finance analysts, and operations leads can type questions like "Show me revenue by region for last quarter" and get an immediate, governed answer without knowing SQL or waiting for a data team ticket. For analysts and power users who want more control, Select Agent mode allows free-form complex queries with full natural language flexibility.