Elastic Leaders Unveil AI-Powered Natural Language Queries for Operational Data at May 12 Webinar

Breaking: Observability Data Now Queryable in Plain English, No SRE Required

Enterprise teams can now ask questions about application performance and infrastructure in everyday language, thanks to a combination of OpenTelemetry and generative AI. Elastic solutions architects Thaddeus Walsh and Brad Quarry will detail the approach during a live webinar hosted by The New Stack on May 12.

Elastic Leaders Unveil AI-Powered Natural Language Queries for Operational Data at May 12 Webinar — Source: thenewstack.io

“Keeping observability data locked behind the SRE function is a bottleneck,” said Walsh in a pre-event statement. “We’ve seen leading companies open operational data to product managers, finance teams, and app owners—anyone who needs answers now.”

The method eliminates the traditional wait for a site reliability engineer to parse logs or metrics. Instead, teams use natural-language commands to query unified telemetry data, receiving instant insights without technical intermediaries.

The Core Breakthrough: OpenTelemetry + GenAI

The key enabler is the open-source project OpenTelemetry, which standardizes data collection across services. When combined with generative AI models, every employee—not just SREs—can analyze performance trends. “You don’t have to throw bodies at your observability data,” Quarry explained. “AI lets your whole team query in plain English.”

Companies generate more telemetry than ever. AI models improve weekly. The challenge is taming the inflow; the opportunity is turning it into a democratized knowledge base. Walsh and Quarry will demonstrate how to escape data silos and apply genAI for natural-language queries.

What This Means for Enterprise Operations

Organizations can now enable data-driven decisions across departments without multiplying SRE headcount. Product managers can ask “Why is my new feature underperforming?” and receive answers in seconds. Finance teams can query dependency costs directly.

“You can’t make data-driven decisions if your data is fragmented and each storage system requires its own query,” Walsh noted. “OpenTelemetry unifies it, and AI translates business questions into insight.”

Background: From SRE Bottleneck to Self-Service Analytics

Historically, operational data required specialized query languages and deep technical knowledge. SREs fielded countless requests, creating delays. The new approach leverages the rapid advancement of large language models and the maturity of OpenTelemetry to bridge the gap.

The May 12 webinar—scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern—will cover three key takeaways: escaping observability data silos, unlocking data for non-technical staff, and querying in natural language. Registration is free.

Key Takeaways from the Session

How to escape observability data silos: Fragmented storage systems block insights. OpenTelemetry creates a unified foundation for AI-powered natural-language queries.
How to unlock observability data for all: Non-technical staff don’t need browser timing data or error logs. GenAI turns logs into actionable business insight.
How to query in natural language: Once data is prepared and AI is set up, anyone can ask questions in plain English and get answers in the same format.

“Providing access to raw data is only half the battle,” Quarry added. “With genAI, you get answers, not raw numbers.”

Immediate Impact and Next Steps

This shift promises to reduce operational bottlenecks and accelerate decision-making. Companies that unify their telemetry with OpenTelemetry and layer on genAI can answer questions in real time, independent of SRE availability.

To join the conversation and see live demonstrations, register at The New Stack webinar page. The session will include a Q&A with Walsh and Quarry.