GraphBI: Expanding Analytics to All Data Through the Combination of GenAI, Graph, & Visual Analytics // Paco Nathan & Weidong Yang // #310

GraphBI: Expanding Analytics to All Data Through the Combination of GenAI, Graph, & Visual Analytics // Paco Nathan & Weidong Yang // #310

Author: Demetrios April 29, 2025 Duration: 1:14:01

GraphBI: Expanding Analytics to All Data Through the Combination of GenAI, Graph, & Visual Analytics // MLOps Podcast #310 with Paco Nathan, Principal DevRel Engineer at Senzing & Weidong Yang, CEO of Kineviz.


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// Abstract

Existing BI and big data solutions depend largely on structured data, which makes up only about 20% of all available information, leaving the vast majority untapped. In this talk, we introduce GraphBI, which aims to address this challenge by combining GenAI, graph technology, and visual analytics to unlock the full potential of enterprise data.

Recent technologies like RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) and GraphRAG leverage GenAI for tasks such as summarization and Q&A, but they often function as black boxes, making verification challenging. In contrast, GraphBI uses GenAI for data pre-processing—converting unstructured data into a graph-based format—enabling a transparent, step-by-step analytics process that ensures reliability.

We will walk through the GraphBI workflow, exploring best practices and challenges in each step of the process: managing both structured and unstructured data, data pre-processing with GenAI, iterative analytics using a BI-focused graph grammar, and final insight presentation. This approach uniquely surfaces business insights by effectively incorporating all types of data.


// Bio

Paco Nathan

Paco is a "player/coach" who excels in data science, machine learning, and natural language, with 40 years of industry experience. He leads DevRel for the Entity Resolved Knowledge Graph practice area at Senzing.com and advises Argilla.io, Kurve.ai, KungFu.ai, and DataSpartan.co.uk, and is a lead committer for the pytextrank​ and kglab​ open source projects. Formerly: Director of Learning Group at O'Reilly Media, and Director of Community Evangelism at Databricks.


Weidong Yang

Weidong Yang, Ph.D., is the founder and CEO of Kineviz, a San Francisco-based company that develops interactive visual analytics-based solutions to address complex big data problems. His expertise spans Physics, Computer Science, and Performing Arts, with significant contributions to the semiconductor industry and quantum dot research at UC, Berkeley, and Silicon Valley. Yang also leads Kinetech Arts, a 501(c) non-profit blending dance, science, and technology. An eloquent public speaker and performer, he holds 11 US patents, including the groundbreaking Diffraction-based Overlay technology, vital for sub-10-nm semiconductor production.


// Related Links

Website: https://www.kineviz.com/

Blog: https://medium.com/kineviz

Website: https://derwen.ai/pacohttps://huggingface.co/pacoid

https://github.com/ceterihttps://neo4j.com/developer-blog/entity-resolved-knowledge-graphs/


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Timestamps:

[00:00] Wei's preferred coffee

[00:26] Takeaways

[00:50] Please like, share, leave a review, and subscribe to our MLOps channels!

[01:06] PII Anonymization Techniques

[09:49] Graph RAG Differentiation Ideas

[19:55] Ontologies vs Embeddings in AI

[30:05] Graph Exploration and Insight

[39:25] Iceberg Data Metaphor

[41:19] Contextual Data Visualization

[42:44] Granularity vs Domain Shifting

[49:51] Visualization Access Control

[53:37] Graph RAG Use Cases

[59:16] IoT and Graphs

[1:01:15] Data Visualization

[1:12:14] Wrap up


Hosted by Demetrios, MLOps.community is a space for honest, meandering talks about the real work of making artificial intelligence systems actually work. This isn't about hype or theoretical papers; it's about the messy, practical, and often surprising journey of taking models from a notebook into a live environment. You'll hear from engineers and practitioners who are in the trenches, discussing the tools, the frustrations, and the occasional breakthroughs that define the day-to-day. The conversations are deliberately relaxed, covering everything from traditional machine learning pipelines to the new world of large language models and even the intangible "vibes" of team culture and process. Each episode peels back a layer on what "production" really means, whether that involves deploying a predictive service, managing an agentic system, or maintaining reliability as everything scales. Tuning into this podcast feels like grabbing a coffee with colleagues who aren't afraid to dig into the technical nitty-gritty while keeping the tone conversational and accessible. It's for anyone who builds, manages, or is just curious about the operational backbone that allows AI to deliver value, offering a grounded perspective often missing from the broader conversation.
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