Article
Semantic-first Is Not a Tagline
What we mean when we say semantic-first, and why it matters for analysis quality.
“Semantic-first” sounds like a positioning line until you try to build real analysis workflows.
In practice, it means the system should know what a metric, dimension, entity, and business concept actually mean before it starts producing conclusions. Without that layer, models are forced to infer meaning from prompts, local context, and whatever happens to be available in the moment.
That works for demos. It does not hold up well in repeated analysis work.
For Tukun, semantic-first means:
- shared definitions are first-class product assets
- analysis should resolve against published business meaning before tool execution
- evidence gaps should be exposed directly, not hidden behind confident wording
This is less glamorous than adding another model dropdown, but it is the difference between interesting output and reliable analysis.