Meta acquires Sundial to enhance its AI analytics capabilities
What's the story
Meta has acquired Sundial, an artificial intelligence (AI) data analytics platform founded by two former Meta employees. The acquisition comes as part of Meta's strategy to bolster its data and analytics team amid the growing demand for insights driven by AI. Sundial will be integrated into Meta's new data analytics organization, led by Alex Schultz.
Leadership shift
Key personnel from Sundial to join Meta
Sundial's co-founders, Julie Zhuo and Chandra Narayanan, will join Meta as part of the acquisition deal.
Zhuo was previously Meta's vice president of product design, while Narayanan served as the analytics chief at Sequoia Capital and Instagram.
He also held the position of director of analytics at Facebook.
Other Sundial employees, including several former Meta employees, will also be joining the company with their AI analytics technology.
Technology integration
Sundial's platform offers quick and reliable data insights
Sundial's platform provides businesses with quick access to reliable data analysis.
It converts natural-language questions and complex data into simple, actionable insights through a chatbot plugin.
This allows teams across organizations to analyze data on their own without waiting on a centralized data unit.
However, Sundial will stop serving external customers once the deal closes.
Organizational structure
Formation of new unit at Meta for AI analytics
In July, Meta appointed Schultz as its first chief data officer.
He oversees the newly formed Data Analytics Tooling & Agents unit, nicknamed DATA.
The unit is responsible for descriptive analysis and experimentation to test and improve Meta's data and AI products.
It also monitors the company's critical AI systems and issues alerts as needed.