Qlik Acquires Kyndi to Revolutionise AI-Driven Business Insights
In a transformative move announced on January 18, 2024, Qlik acquires Kyndi: Qlik acquired pivotal intellectual property and expertise from Kyndi, a trailblazer in natural language processing (NLP), search, and generative AI. This acquisition has fortified Qlik’s mission to deliver precise, actionable insights from both structured and unstructured data, setting the stage for ground-breaking advancements in AI-driven analytics.
Fast forward to April 2025, and the ripples of this strategic decision are becoming clearer, enhancing Qlik’s leadership in the evolving data landscape.
What is Kyndi?
Kyndi specialised in unlocking the value of unstructured data—think documents, emails, and multimedia—using cutting-edge NLP and generative AI technologies. Unlike traditional data platforms that excel with structured datasets, Kyndi’s innovations enable organizations to extract contextually rich answers from the vast, often untapped reservoirs of unstructured information that make up an estimated 80% of enterprise data. By integrating Kyndi’s capabilities into Qlik Cloud, Qlik has bridged a critical gap, empowering businesses to combine structured analytics with unstructured insights seamlessly.
Why Unstructured Data Matters
The Kyndi acquisition reflects a prescient response to a pressing industry challenge: the explosion of unstructured data. As businesses increasingly rely on AI to drive decisions, the ability to process and analyse diverse data types is no longer optional—it’s essential. Kyndi’s technology enhances Qlik’s ability to deliver comprehensive answers, supporting use cases from customer sentiment analysis to real-time operational intelligence. Industry analysts, like Mike Leone from Enterprise Strategy Group, hailed this move in 2024 as a “significant step” that positioned Qlik at the forefront of innovative analytics, a prediction that’s proving true as we see broader adoption in 2025.
Impact on Qlik’s AI Vision
The acquisition of Kyndi has supercharged Qlik’s AI capabilities, aligning perfectly with its vision of delivering trusted, context-rich insights. James Fisher, Qlik’s Chief Strategy Officer, noted at the time:
The acquisition of Kyndi’s assets represents a key step in Qlik’s AI vision, supporting our ability to deliver rich, trusted answers from complex business questions. It enhances our established leadership in AI, ensuring that Kyndi’s innovative unstructured data processing combined with our powerful structured analytics will unlock richer and more actionable insights for our customers.
By 2025, this vision is materializing. At Qlik Connect 2024, the company unveiled enhancements to Qlik Answers. A generative AI tool that leverages Kyndi’s tech to provide explainable answers from unstructured sources, a direct outcome of this acquisition.
Ryan Welsh of Kyndi Joins Qlik
A major coup from the deal was the addition of Ryan Welsh, Kyndi’s Founder and CEO, who joined Qlik as Regional Head of AI Innovation (a role reflecting his expertise rather than the originally stated “Data Integration and Quality”). Welsh’s optimism in 2024 remains relevant today:
I’m thrilled to join the Qlik team. Qlik is perfectly positioned to deliver on the promise of generative AI. We have a unique opportunity to enhance how AI-powered insights create value for customers. Introducing our innovations into Qlik’s technology will enable the merging of structured and unstructured data, thereby empowering users with deeper insights and more informed decisions across a wide range of business scenarios.
In 2025, Welsh’s influence is evident in Qlik’s push toward AI-augmented analytics, with early feedback suggesting improved decision-making speed and accuracy for users across industries like logistics and healthcare.
What’s Happened Since Qlik Acquired Kyndi 2024?
As of April 2025, the Kyndi acquisition has begun to bear fruit. Qlik Answers, enhanced by Kyndi’s NLP, is gaining traction among enterprises needing to sift through unstructured data for real-time insights—think supply chain managers analysing shipping logs or marketers decoding customer feedback. While specific metrics are still emerging, the integration aligns with Qlik’s broader 2024 launches (e.g., Qlik Talend Cloud). Suggesting a synergy that’s amplifying data accessibility across platforms like Snowflake and Databricks. Customers are reportedly seeing faster time-to-insight, a nod to the acquisition’s promise of richer analytics.
A Game-Changer for 2025 and Beyond
Drew Clarke, General Manager of Qlik’s Data Business Unit, framed the acquisition’s long-term potential in 2024:
The acquisition of Kyndi and Ryan’s expertise is a pivotal step in reshaping the data landscape, a significant contribution to our ongoing work for 2024 and beyond. Customers recognize the importance of leveraging unstructured data—a strategy that reinforces a solid foundation for AI-driven decision-making.
Today, this foresight is paying off. As unstructured data continues to grow, Qlik’s Kyndi-powered tools are positioning it as a leader in decision intelligence. Challenging competitors by offering a unified approach to all data types. Looking ahead, expect further innovations at Qlik Connect 2025, where Kyndi’s legacy could unlock even more transformative use cases.
Learn More
To explore how Qlik’s enhanced AI capabilities can elevate your business, contact us at [email protected]
