Anaqua’s software manages intellectual property that can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so AI there has to work with data exactly as it is, without hallucinations or unnoticed changes. CIO Erik Bailey’s answer was a single control plane that works like a control tower: CData Connect AI runs every query as the logged-in user and keeps write access tightly limited.
At Foundations 2026, CData’s November 5 event on enterprise AI, Erik will join CData Chief Marketing Officer Will Davis for “The CIO Perspective: Rolling Out AI at Anaqua” to share the rollout and the lessons any organization can use.
Why AI was a careful decision at Anaqua
IP management is rules-driven. From patent prosecution through renewals and maintenance, every step has to happen exactly the right way, so Anaqua manages every use of AI carefully, in its products and inside the company. AI is generally non-deterministic, and these processes are the opposite: they have to be deterministic. Anaqua needs AI to perform consistently and reliably, working with its data as it is, without any risk of altering it or doing something wrong that goes unnoticed. A hallucination on read is embarrassing; on write, it's a whole different matter, which is why write access is granted sparingly. When trust in AI output slips, clients start doubting the rest of the platform. For Anaqua, faster only counts if it's accurate.
A rollout built on a single control plane
Anaqua's first step was Microsoft Copilot, which gave people a better search engine: valuable, but not transformative. Early in 2026, a Claude pilot showed how much more was possible, and Erik wanted AI to reach the business applications where the work happens. Speed mattered, but governance came first: Erik accepted some friction, a speed bump rather than a barrier, because standard MCP connectors leave a company with no control over what AI does in each system. His one requirement: access had to be central and controlled, with no MCP sprawl and no shadow AI.
That requirement called for a single control plane, one layer that manages connectivity, governance, and context for every system and every AI tool, today and in the future. CData Connect AI became that layer, and centralized governance of system access is the feature Erik says matters most. Every query runs as the logged-in user, IT decides who can read and who can write, and any model can plug in without rebuilding what's already set up. Claude is now open to the whole company, and the use cases keep growing, from Customer 360 views to a loop that tunes Anaqua's Skills from query failures.
The Anaqua case study covers the architecture and the results so far. Read it before the session, then bring your own questions.
What Erik and Will cover
Expect Erik to talk through the following in this 20-minute conversation:
What the move from pilot to production taught him
How his team makes the platform better every week
What he'd tell a CIO starting their AI journey
What he thinks of the AI gateway as a category, and of CData's approach to it
Where Anaqua's AI program goes in the next 12 months
Bring your questions about centralizing AI access, governing what agents can do, and phasing a rollout.
Hear the full story on November 5
Register for Foundations 2026 to spend the day with the people building the AI gateway and the teams already running on it. CEO Amit Sharma and Chief Product and Technology Officer Raviv Levi open the day, Dr. Nick Golovin walks through the context engine, and CData Labs tests AI models on live enterprise data. Erik's session is where you'll hear what a rollout takes, and what it returns, from the person who ran it.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Anaqua session at Foundations 2026?
Foundations 2026 runs November 5, 2026. "The CIO Perspective: Rolling Out AI at Anaqua" with Erik Bailey and Will Davis is one of the event's sessions. Registration is free.
Who should attend this session?
CIOs, IT leaders, and AI program owners who are moving from pilots to company-wide AI and need to decide who can read, write, and see what.
Where can I read more about Anaqua's use case?
