Analytics and Data Science News for the Week of November 6; Updates from Databricks, Ocient, Smartsheet & More

Solutions Review Executive Editor Tim King curated this list of notable analytics and data science news for the week of November 6, 2026.

With the launch of the Solutions Review Expert Network, we’re putting expert perspectives first. Each week, our Expert Insights section brings you thought leadership from the SR Expert Network, Insight Jam community, and contributors, alongside our latest virtual events and original editorial, including conversations on the human impact of AI on education.

Then, catch up on the latest analytics and data science news from around the marketplace. Solutions Review editors curate the week’s funding, mergers and acquisitions, talent moves, product announcements and updates, partnerships, original research, industry events, and more.

For early access to some of what is published on Solutions Review, join Insight Jam, a community dedicated to enabling the conversation in enterprise tech and the future of learning and work.

Expert Insights

SR Expert Network: The Loom, The Car & the Modern Data Engine by Dr. Joe Perez

As a data professional who has spent decades helping organizations untangle their messy systems, I find this history utterly captivating. The story of Toyota is not just a great piece of business trivia. It is the ultimate blueprint for how we should be thinking about modern data management and data governance.

Read on Solutions Review

Solutions Review Set to Host Planview for Exclusive Spotlight Show “AI-Powered Portfolio Management: Turn Strategy into Business Value” on November 25

Reporting on delivery is the foundation, not the destination. Strategy-to-outcome transparency is the next horizon: a trusted, connected view of which outcomes your investment serves, what is committed, what is deliverable and what value is being realised. AI is now making it practical, taking manual effort out of planning, forecasting and reporting so portfolio teams can spend their time steering rather than collating.

Register on LinkedIn

Analytics and Data Science News for the Week of November 6, 2026

CDW Acquires Lovelytics In Approximately $525 Million Data And AI Services Deal

Interlock Equity has announced the sale of Lovelytics to CDW in a transaction valued at approximately $525 million that closed September 25, 2026. The Databricks-focused consultancy grew from 60 to more than 600 specialists during Interlock’s three-year investment, expanding across the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Colombia. Lovelytics helps enterprises modernize and govern data and move AI projects into production.

Read on for more→ Interlock Equity Completes Sale of Lovelytics to CDW

Claude Adds Native OpenTelemetry Export To Databricks MLflow For Agent Debugging

Claude Platform’s native OpenTelemetry export is now in public beta, with Databricks MLflow as a supported destination for traces from Anthropic SDKs, the Messages API, and Claude Managed Agents. Zerobus ingests execution spans into Unity Catalog tables, giving teams governed access to model calls, tool activity, timing, and errors. Developers can investigate failures, collect expert feedback, and compare revisions against the same evaluation cases. MLflow Issues, also in beta, identifies recurring problems such as redundant searches and failed tool calls; capturing request and response content requires explicit opt-in.

Read on for more→ Claude Platform Now Supports Native OpenTelemetry Observability in Databricks MLflow

Coupler.io Finds Sevenfold Growth In AI Analytics Usage Among Its Agency And SMB Accounts

Coupler.io’s State of AI Analytics 2026 report found that active AI data usage grew sevenfold among its agency and SMB accounts between September 2025 and September 2026. Half of AI-using teams connected at least two sources, while 37% of professionals identified missing business context as the leading trust barrier. Claude was used by 78% of teams connecting data to AI. The findings combine anonymized platform usage with surveys and event polls, describing Coupler.io’s observed customer population rather than a representative measure of the entire agency market.

Read on for more→ Coupler.io Research: The Use of AI Analytics Among Agencies Grew Sevenfold in 2026

Databricks Makes Serverless Lakebase Postgres Generally Available On Google Cloud

Lakebase Postgres is now generally available on Google Cloud, bringing managed transactional databases onto the Databricks platform alongside analytics and AI. Autoscaling, scale-to-zero, instant database branching, and point-in-time recovery reduce infrastructure administration, while Unity Catalog provides shared access controls and auditing. Available in five regions, the service offers multi-zone high availability backed by a 99.99% SLA; private connectivity through Google Cloud Private Service Connect remains in beta.

Read on for more→ Lakebase Postgres Is Now Generally Available on Google Cloud

Google Expands Agentic Data Cloud With Cross-Cloud Context And Agent-Scale Databases

Google has expanded its Agentic Data Cloud with generally available cross-cloud interconnect and caching for AWS and Azure, direct Iceberg access in AlloyDB, and new Knowledge Catalog capabilities. Preview features add self-learning context enrichment, reusable context sets, and a studio where stewards review, approve, version, and roll back updates. Infrastructure additions include AlloyDB Express in preview for rapid development and scale-to-zero operation, alongside generally available BigQuery Graph.

Read on for more→ What’s New Across Google’s Agentic Data Cloud

Modern Data Company Launches Conversational Analytics Grounded In Governed Data Products

The Modern Data Company has launched Dex, a conversational AI experience for DataOS that answers business questions using established metrics, relationships, quality controls, and source information. Available now to DataOS customers, Dex shows the definitions, filters, and underlying data behind answers and identifies when governed information cannot support a reliable response. Runtime access controls—not model instructions—determine what users can see.

Read on for more→ The Modern Data Company Launches Dex, Conversational AI That Knows When It Has the Answer and Admits When It Doesn’t

Ocient Raises $100 Million To Expand Petabyte-Scale Analytics For AI Agents

Ocient has raised $100 million in Series C funding, bringing total funding to $260 million, to expand analytics serving AI agents and human analysts. Co-led by Boka Capital and OCA Ventures, the round will support OcientAIQ development, sales, and customer delivery as national security and telecommunications customers seek to analyze complete datasets rather than samples. Ocient says revenue should more than triple this fiscal year. Growing demand for on-premises deployments reflects customer concerns about cost, data sovereignty, and sensitive information.

Read on for more→ Ocient Raises $100 Million as Agentic AI Drives Growth in Large-Scale Analytics

Oracle Adds Downloadable FDI Agent Repository To Simplify Discovery And Deployment

Oracle has introduced the Fusion Agents Repository within Fusion Data Intelligence, giving administrators a central catalog of agents and agentic applications relevant to the functional areas enabled in their environment. Each download packages the required artifacts with a PDF guide covering prerequisites, import into AI Agent Studio, configuration, and access validation. Available through the FDI Administration console, the repository creates a repeatable delivery channel for new solutions, reducing the effort required to find implementation materials while leaving administrators responsible for setup and validation.

Read on for more→ From Discovery to Use: Introducing the FDI Fusion Agents Repository for Oracle AI Agent Studio

PhoenixAI Launches Contextbase To Unify Agent Knowledge, Memory, And Evaluation

PhoenixAI has launched Contextbase, an infrastructure layer that stores business semantics, knowledge, agent memory, execution traces, and evaluations in one governed system. Built into the PhoenixAI database, it places context alongside business data so agents can query both under shared permissions, rather than assemble information from separate tools. Linked, versioned records connect business definitions and prior learning with evidence of what each run did.

Read on for more→ PhoenixAI Launches Contextbase, the Context Infrastructure for AI Agents

Smartsheet Introduces AI Planning Platform To Detect Execution Drift Across Enterprise Systems

Smartsheet has introduced vsActual, a planning and execution platform whose AI agents compare ongoing work with strategic objectives and flag emerging delays, costs, and dependency problems. Its Execution Graph connects tasks, projects, programs, and goals, drawing context from systems including Oracle, SAP, Workday, Atlassian, and ServiceNow. Agents can structure plans, model scenarios, and recommend adjustments, with human approval remaining the default for consequential actions. Related updates add recurring agentic workflows, integrations, data-quality agents, and security controls to Smartsheet’s existing platform.

Read on for more→ Smartsheet AI-Powered Platform Bridges Gap Between Planning and Results

Spark 4.3 Adds Stateful Real-Time Processing And History-Preserving Data Pipelines

Apache Spark 4.3, announced for Databricks Runtime 19, extends Real-Time Mode with aggregations, deduplication, and custom stateful processing, achieving sub-150-millisecond P99 latency across three representative benchmarks. The release also adds SCD Type 2 support to Auto CDC for retaining record history, opt-in Project Feather optimizations for small-data development, and improved Spark Connect observability. Expanded SQL capabilities simplify nested-data and temporal analysis, with ASOF joins and nanosecond timestamps in preview.

Read on for more→ Introducing Apache Spark 4.3—Now Available in Databricks Runtime 19

For consideration in future analytics and data science news roundups, send your announcements to the editor: tking@solutionsreview.com.