5 unsexy data things to get right to make AI work

Here are 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐲 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 you need to get right before your analytics agent touches real customer data in databases, warehouses, and business apps.

Most teams start with the same assumptions: give the agent read-only database access, put a thin API in front of it, rely on RBAC or row-level security, and figure out monitoring later if something breaks. These approaches feel safe because they’ve worked for humans and services -but they weren’t designed for autonomous systems that explore, retry, and operate at scale.

A few core things to consider:

1. 𝐈𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬
   Agents shouldn’t see raw tables. They need sandboxed, pre-defined views that already encode some level of joins, filters, and business logic. Safety has to exist before the query runs.

2. 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭-𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬
   Human IAM assumes intent. Agents don’t have intent—they explore. Access needs hard boundaries: what can be queried, how often, with which parameters, and at what cost.

3. 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞-𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠
   Unbounded SQL is a footgun. Structured tools with defined inputs reduce prompt injection, data leakage, and accidental over-querying.

4. 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬-𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭
   Most real questions span CRM + product + billing + support. Teams either overexpose everything or duplicate logic in brittle APIs. Neither scales.

5. 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭-𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭
   You need to know what agents queried, what they returned, how long it took, and how much it cost -per agent, per workflow. Post-hoc logs aren’t enough.

The biggest mistake I see teams make is treating security as an afterthought. Once your first agent is live, it’s already too late to bolt it on.

This isn’t about trusting models to behave. It’s about designing a clear agent-to-data access layer upfront with guardrails that define what agents are allowed to see, query, and act on.

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𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐈, 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐲𝐥𝐚𝐫