What is Data Pipeline?
TL;DR
An automated workflow for collecting, transforming, storing, and delivering data. The foundation of AI/ML operations.
Data Pipeline: Definition & Explanation
A data pipeline is a series of automated workflows that process, transform, and move data from source systems to destination storage or consumption points. It automates ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) or ELT processes, creating clean datasets from raw data for analysis and AI model training. In AI systems, it is used for training data preprocessing, feature computation, real-time data ingestion, and delivering model inference results. Tools like Apache Airflow, dbt, Fivetran, n8n, and Make are commonly used, making data pipelines a critical foundation for maintaining data quality and freshness.