Did you know…
Timescale’s engineering team showed that watching how skilled analysts write SQL can unlock far more reliable text-to-SQL agents. By capturing the human workflow in a Semantic Catalog that translates everyday business terms into precise schema references and a Semantic Validation loop that auto-tests every draft query, they dramatically cut hallucinations and join errors, without re-training a large language model.
Ok, So What?
Most firms still depend on spreadsheets and ad-hoc SQL for critical insight. Yet classic “fine-tune an LLM and hope” approaches break under production pressure because natural language is ambiguous and schemas evolve every sprint.
Timescale’s agent reminds us that genuine AI transformation happens when you re-engineer the workflow, grounding probabilistic models in deterministic checks and fresh business context. That’s the difference between an AI demo and an AI product.
Now What?
- Build a living Semantic Catalog. Treat schema metadata as product-grade content. Version-control column aliases, units, and business definitions so agents—and people—share one source of truth.
- Tie your agent to cheap oracles. Borrow from software engineering: run EXPLAIN, linters, or API mocks after every LLM draft. Feed structured errors back for self-correction; your validation stack becomes the agent’s safety net.
- Pilot in a “COE + business unit” sprint. Pair a data-savvy analyst (the new “strategic AI orchestrator”) with an LLM engineer. Measure reduction in query-debug time and error rates versus baseline dashboards. Scale only after the catalog/validation loop proves stable.
Questions to think about
- Where in your org do analysts repeatedly translate fuzzy business questions into brittle SQL or API calls?
- Which deterministic tools (compilers, BI semantic layers, MDM hubs) could become validation oracles for an AI agent?
- How will you maintain the Semantic Catalog as products, metrics, and naming conventions evolve?
- What change-management steps are needed so analysts trust and adopt an auto-SQL agent rather than bypassing it?