Weaviate named a Leader and Outperformer by GigaOm and Emerging Leader by Gartner; Market Momentum Accelerates as Nonrelational DBMS Segment Grows 22.7%

Amsterdam City, Jan. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Weaviate, the AI database company, today announced it has been recognized as a Leader and Outperformer in the 2025 GigaOm Radar for Vector Databases. This recognition highlights Weaviate's advanced capabilities in multimodality and agentic AI at a time when the broader database market is undergoing a significant shift toward generative AI (GenAI) adoption. This further underlines Gartner's rating as an Emerging Leader in their Innovation Guide for Generative AI Engineering (November 2025).

Recent market research underscores the explosive demand for specialized data platforms. According to the 2025 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Cloud Database Management Systems, the nonrelational DBMS segment grew by 22.7% in 2024, more than double the rate of the relational segment. Gartner notes that the market is “undergoing significant changes, including the adoption of generative AI,” a trend that has made vector search capabilities a critical component of modern data stacks.

GigaOm Radar: Weaviate Recognized for Innovation and Velocity

In the GigaOm Radar for Vector Databases (v3), Weaviate secured a position in the Innovation/Platform Play quadrant. This quadrant distinguishes vendors that prioritize cutting-edge functionality and broad, extensible platform capabilities.

Weaviate was also classified as an Outperformer, a designation GigaOm awards to vendors demonstrating significant forward momentum and rapid delivery of new features. The report states that Weaviate's classification as an Outperformer is due in part to “its sophisticated functionality that incorporates AI agents for some of the core capabilities the platform offers”.

Key strengths highlighted in the GigaOm report include:

Advanced AI Agent Support: The report recognized Weaviate's forward-thinking integration of AI agents, including a “Query Agent” for query-related tasks, a “Transformation Agent” for data preparation, and a “Personalization Agent”.

Superior Multimodality: Weaviate received high marks for its ability to handle complex multimodal data. The report noted Weaviate's use of models like CLIP and ImageBind to create dense vectors that capture semantic meaning across video, text, images, and audio. Users can “return query results containing vectors, metadata from those vectors, or a combination of the two”.

Unmatched Embedding Flexibility: GigaOm praised Weaviate for enabling users to choose from “hundreds of models spanning various domains, modalities, and even written languages”. The platform supports a “bring-your-own-embedding-model paradigm” and seamlessly integrates with NVIDIA Inference Microservices (NIM) to expedite embedding processes.

Robust Indexing: The report highlighted Weaviate's customized indexing strategies, including HNSW for approximation and flat indexes for disk-based brute force search, which are essential for scaling enterprise workloads.

The Industry Shift to GenAI

The recognition by GigaOm arrives as the database market pivots aggressively toward AI readiness. The 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud DBMS highlights that most modern cloud DBMS platforms now “make use of LLMs internally or by interfacing with them,” signaling a broad industry move toward AI-integrated data systems.

While general-purpose vendors are adding vector capabilities, specialized platforms like Weaviate offer distinct advantages. As noted in the GigaOm report, specialists in the vector space “typically provide more advantages in terms of cost reductions and advanced functionality,” posing a “formidable challenge to established database platforms”.

“We believe GigaOm moving Weavaite's rating closer to the center of Leader and Outperformer reflects our ability to deliver towards our strategic goals for the GenAI market and building the AI infrastructure for the future in the GigaOm Radar validates our commitment to building the AI infrastructure of the future,” said Bob van Luijt, CEO of Weaviate. “With the nonrelational market growing at over 20% annually, it is clear that developers are demanding platforms that go beyond simple storage to actively facilitate multimodal and agentic AI workflows.”

GigaOm provides technical, operational, and business advice for IT's strategic digital enterprise and business initiatives. GigaOm's advice empowers enterprises to successfully compete in an increasingly complicated business atmosphere that requires a solid understanding of constantly changing customer demands.

About Weaviate

Weaviate is an open-source, AI database that empowers developers to build intuitive and reliable AI applications. With capabilities spanning vector search, hybrid search, and AI Agents, Weaviate enables AI systems to interact with data in a way that is robust, scalable, and context-aware.

Sources:

GigaOm Radar for Vector Databases, v3, by Andrew J. Brust and Jelani Harper, November 7, 2025.

Innovation Guide for Generative AI Engineering, by Radu Miclaus, Justin Tung, 13 November 2025 – ID G00840093

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems, by Henry Cook et al., November 18, 2025.

Media Contact:

Philip Vollet
PR@weaviate.io
+49-160-96488554

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