Prukalpa Sankar on Atlan's Data Catalog Success & AI Innovation
Atlan has rapidly ascended to prominence in the data catalog space, a trajectory CEO and co-founder Prukalpa Sankar attributes not to sudden fortune, but to years of dedicated effort and experience. Her journey, which began with a focus on societal impact, has positioned her as a notable figure in the evolving data landscape, earning her recognition as a 2025 BigDATAwire Person to Watch.
Sankar’s path to leading a successful data company was far from linear. In 2012, alongside future Atlan co-founder Varun Banka, she was engaged with SocialCops, developing a substantial data platform for the Prime Minister of India. At the time, the objective was not to build a startup, but to address critical, high-stakes problems. This early work exposed them firsthand to the immense challenges of managing disparate data — from analyzing satellite imagery to integrating over 600 chaotic data sources. It was this deep immersion in the “painful, chaotic, and manual” realities of data management that eventually led to Atlan’s inception, born from a conviction that a better solution was essential.
Atlan’s rapid ascent to leadership, including its top ranking in the recent Forrester Wave for Enterprise Data Catalogs, is, according to Sankar, rooted in a fundamental principle: “care.” This ethos places customers at the pinnacle of their priorities, influencing every strategic decision, line of code, and product roadmap. This deep empathy, she explains, has fostered trust among users, leading to consistent top ratings across industries and review platforms. It has also fueled Atlan’s innovation, evident in its pioneering of Atlan AI, operationalizing Data Mesh and Data Products within a catalog, and redefining Active Metadata from a passive documentation tool into a dynamic, integrated fabric of the modern data stack. Their commitment to “shifting left,” by embedding metadata workflows directly into engineering tools, exemplifies this user-centric approach, stemming from a profound understanding of customer needs.
Addressing the complexities of data governance, Sankar advocates for a foundational shift: begin with the business problem, not the technology. Drawing from insights gained working with over 200 data teams, Atlan developed “The Atlan Way,” a framework of hard-won lessons for successful governance that encompasses people, programs, and operational models, not just technology. Many governance initiatives falter because they either fail to launch, become unsustainable due to manual processes, or struggle with adoption. Atlan tackles these issues head-on by building automation-first solutions that integrate seamlessly into data producer workflows, ensuring governance becomes a sustainable habit rather than a one-time setup. Furthermore, they prioritize user adoption by meeting teams where they already work—within tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, BI tools, and data warehouses—rather than forcing users into new environments. Finally, recognizing the fluid nature of the data ecosystem, Atlan champions an open platform approach, ensuring governance systems remain adaptable and future-ready, ultimately aiming for governance to be “invisible”—enabling rather than controlling.
Atlan’s strategic positioning as a metadata control plane, overseeing the entire data tool stack, challenges traditional data practitioner habits. Sankar asserts that the secret lies not in changing behavior, but in designing around it. This means acting as connective tissue rather than creating another silo. Their Active Metadata approach transforms metadata from a passive library into an active force, embedding it into commonly used tools like GitHub, dbt, and various BI platforms. This “shifting governance left” integrates governance directly into engineering workflows where data products are built and shipped, making it feel like a feature, not a source of friction. Ultimately, she emphasizes, “Metadata isn’t a layer you add. It’s the foundation you build on.”
Looking ahead, the proliferation of Generative AI tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) presents new governance challenges. Sankar highlights the transition from a “digital-native” to an “AI-native” world, where LLMs understand language but lack inherent meaning. This raises critical questions of trust: can the training data, the model, and the AI-generated actions be relied upon? In this context, governance evolves from mere policy enforcement to a crucial system for context and trust, becoming a “frontline enabler” and a “competitive advantage.” For Sankar, this is governance’s “leapfrog moment,” moving from a cost center to a critical unlock for businesses that need to move fast while maintaining trust. Active Metadata, acting as a semantic layer, is key to this evolution, making meaning machine-readable, governance invisible, and ensuring AI acts with context and care.
Beyond her professional achievements, Sankar holds a unique personal distinction: she is, quite literally, the only “Prukalpa” in the world, a testament to her parents’ foresight in creating a truly singular identity.