# Databricks previews Genie Ontology

> Databricks put Genie Ontology into public preview. It builds a graph that links metrics, business terms, tables and teams, and respects existing permissions.

By Matt O'Donnell. Published June 5, 2026.  
Tags: databricks, genie, ontology.  
Canonical: https://kenseme.com/blog/databricks-genie-ontology-preview/

On June 4, 2026, Databricks released Genie Ontology in public preview.

## What was announced

1. **An automatically built graph** that links metrics, business terms, tables and the teams that use them.
2. **Permission-aware.** What a user sees in the graph follows their existing Unity Catalog access.
3. **Used by Genie** to ground answers in the company's own terms.

## Why it matters

Another major data platform now ships something it calls an ontology. That is good news for anyone who has argued that agents need a model of the business, not just a list of tables.

An automatically built graph is a strong starting point. It is still a guess about the business, drawn from how data has been used. Whether "customer" in the finance tables means the same thing as "customer" in the support tables is a question someone has to answer, and the answer should carry their name. The value of any ontology, built by hand or by machine, comes from the decisions people confirm in it.

## Sources

1. [AI/BI release notes 2026 (Databricks docs)](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/ai-bi/release-notes/2026)