SAS Acquires Hazy's Synthetic Data Technology to Enhance AI Capabilities

SAS Acquires Hazy to Strengthen Synthetic Data and AI Capabilities

SAS Data Maker will integrate Hazy's technology for global rollout in 2025. SAS, a global data and AI (artificial intelligence) company, has acquired the software assets of Hazy, a synthetic data technology company. The acquisition aims to enhance SAS' AI and data management portfolio by equipping businesses with synthetic data generation capabilities to address the growing demand for AI solutions. Also Read: Red Hat to Acquire Neural Magic to Drive Gen AI Across Hybrid Cloud Environments "This move positions SAS at the forefront of data innovation, enabling more robust and secure AI applications, with future integration opportunities with SAS Viya. By integrating Hazy's synthetic data capabilities, SAS will empower customers to innovate and conduct deep research, overcoming challenges related to data availability, access or quality," SAS said in a release this week. "Our acquisition of Hazy's IP represents a pivotal step in our commitment to innovation in the next generation of data management and AI," said Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. "Hazy is a pioneer in bringing synthetic data to market as a viable enterprise product, and analysts rank it among the top software providers in its category. By integrating their technology, we can offer our customers unparalleled opportunities to harness data safely and effectively, enabling them to experiment and model scenarios that were previously out of reach and gain a competitive advantage." According to the SAS, Synthetic data, which mirrors the statistical patterns of real data without exposing private, identifiable or restricted information, mitigates risks associated with real data and enhances the scope of data available for analytics and AI. Bryan Harris, Chief Technology Officer of SAS, added, "Analysts predict that by 2026, 75 percent of businesses will use generative AI to create synthetic customer data, up from less than 5 percent in 2023. For SAS customers, this marks a strategic leap, solidifying SAS' leadership in AI and analytics. With synthetic data, customers can innovate and research more deeply, accessing data that was previously out of reach due to availability, access or quality issues." Also Read: L&T Technology Services Acquires Intelliswift to Boost AI and Digital Engineering Capabilities SAS noted that integrating Hazy's technology builds on its earlier announcement of SAS Data Maker in early 2024. SAS Data Maker addresses data challenges by generating synthetic data that statistically represents original data sets without compromising privacy, while simplifying processes and reducing resource use. The integration of Hazy's technology into SAS Data Maker will enable businesses to innovate faster, save costs, and develop trustworthy AI systems. SAS says the enhanced data solutions resulting from this acquisition will be available globally, with an initial preview expected in early 2025. Synthetic data is artificially generated data that mimics real-world data. It is created using algorithms to replicate the statistical properties and patterns of real data without containing any actual personal information.

SAS Boosts GenAI Capabilities With Synthetic Data Technology Acquisition

The data analytics and AI software giant is buying the intellectual property assets of synthetic data pioneer Hazy, SAS said Tuesday. Data analytics and AI software developer SAS is boosting its capabilities in the generative AI space with the acquisition of the principal software assets of Hazy, a pioneer in synthetic data technology. The move will enhance SAS' data and AI technology portfolio, providing customers with "critical and timely" synthetic data generation capabilities as they step their use of AI. "Our acquisition of Hazy's IP represents a pivotal step in our commitment to innovation in the next generation of data management and AI," said SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, in a statement. "Hazy is a pioneer in bringing synthetic data to market as a viable enterprise product, and analysts rank it among the top software providers in its category. [Related: SAS Continues Distribution Offensive With Expanded Carahsoft Alliance] "By integrating their technology, we can offer our customers unparalleled opportunities to harness data safely and effectively, enabling them to experiment and model scenarios that were previously out of reach and gain a competitive advantage," Goodnight said. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed and additional information about the future of London-based Hazy was not provided. Hazy was founded in January 2017 and raised $3.5 million in seed funding in January 2020. Synthetic data technology is used to help overcome issues with data availability, access or quality. It's regarded as key for companies implementing AI systems, especially in industries with strict data privacy and governance regulations, according to Kathy Lange, AI software research director at IDC, who was quoted in the SAS announcement. Synthetic data, which mirrors the statistical patterns of real data without exposing private, identifiable or restricted information, mitigates risks associated with real data and enhances the scope of data available for analytics and AI, according to SAS. Such augmentation leads to robust, reliable results and innovative solutions for data scientists who can shape and balance data sets more effectively. The announcement builds on the debut earlier this year of SAS Data Maker, software that generates synthetic data that statistically represents original data sets without compromising privacy while also simplifying processes and saving resources, according to SAS. SAS, headquartered in Cary, N.C., plans to integrate the Hazy technology into SAS Data Maker with an initial preview expected in early 2025, the company said. There are also "future integration opportunities" with SAS Viya, the company's flagship analytics and AI platform. In the announcement SAS CTO Bryan Harris cited analyst forecasts that by 2026 75 percent of all businesses will be using AI to generate synthetic customer data, up from less than 5 percent in 2023. "With synthetic data, customers can innovate and research more deeply, accessing data that was previously out of reach due to availability, access or quality issues," Harris said.

SAS buys synthetic data software from Hazy to streamline AI development - SiliconANGLE

SAS buys synthetic data software from Hazy to streamline AI development The enterprise data analytics software company SAS Institute Inc. is moving into the realm of synthetic data to boost its artificial intelligence portfolio with the acquisition of intellectual property from the U.K.-based startup Hazy Ltd. According to SAS, the acquisition will enable it to equip its customers with the tools to create critically-needed synthetic data to fuel their AI workloads. Hazy has created a platform that enables companies to put their most sensitive and private information to use in ways that weren't previously possible. In many regulated industries, companies have collected enormous volumes of data that could theoretically be used to train highly-performant AI models, but the problem is that they can't risk exposing that information if they want to stay compliant. Hazy gives them an alternative solution that involves leveraging their existing, highly sensitive data in order to create synthetic information that can be freely used without restrictions. The synthetic data created using Hazy's platform mirrors the statistical patterns of real datasets, but it has the advantage of not exposing any private, identifiable or restricted information. As such, it mitigates all of the risk associated with using real data, so companies can feed into their AI models or use it to perform more comprehensive analytics. SAS said the initial plan is to integrate Hazy's synthetic data creation tools with the existing SAS Data Maker platform, enhancing its capabilities. It said customers will be able to create much richer synthetic datasets that were previously out of reach, and do so much more rapidly than before, thereby helping to accelerate their AI projects. With SAS Data Maker, organizations will be able to create more trustworthy AI systems based on diverse synthetic datasets, ensuring they're extremely reliable. Notably, it provides a viable alternative to the traditional data collection methods, which can be extremely expensive. SAS Chief Executive Jim Goodnight said the acquisition is a pivotal step in its ambitions to become an industry leader in data management and AI development. "Hazy is a pioneer in bringing synthetic data to market as a viable enterprise product, and analysts rank it among the top software providers in its category," Goodnight said. "By integrating their technology, we can offer our customers unparalleled opportunities to harness data safely and effectively, enabling them to experiment and model scenarios that were previously out of reach." SAS said the enhanced version of SAS Data Maker will be available in preview in early 2025. Once it becomes available, customers will be able to use their synthetic datasets with its flagship AI platform, SAS Viya. Announced last year, SAS Viya is an AI integration platform that makes it possible for companies to integrate advanced large language models such as OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google LLC's Gemini Pro 1.5 within their existing business processes. In doing this, SAS Viya can then orchestrate those LLMs to create customized AI models and agents and fine-tune them to accomplish very specific business tasks. International Data Corp. analyst Kathy Lange underscored the importance of synthetic data, saying it can be a game-changer in industries such as healthcare and finance, which are governed by strict privacy regulations. "SAS' acquisition highlights the growing requirement for synthetic data as an integral component of a modern AI toolkit, addressing data scarcity and privacy issues, and improving model accuracy while reducing biases," she said. SAS Chief Technology Officer Bryan Harris discussed the acquisition of Hazy's software in an interview on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media's mobile livestreaming platform. He explained that SAS is making a proactive move, citing studies that show how 75% of businesses are expected to start using generative AI tools to create synthetic customer data by 2026, up from less than 5% in 2023.