The dbt Fusion engine:
The foundation for analytics and AI
dbt Core set the standard for analytics engineering. The dbt Fusion engine raises it.
This report examines the Fusion engine from two vantage points: the development workflow you experience every day, and the strategic decisions your team faces on cost efficiency, governance, and AI readiness.
Inside:
A practitioner's guide to Fusion in the IDE
Real-time SQL validation, column-level lineage, and CTE previewing that catch issues as you type, not after you run
State-aware orchestration and cost efficiency
How the Fusion engine runs only the models impacted by a change, delivering 30%+ reductions in warehouse compute costs
Governance and AI readiness
How continuously generated metadata and column-level lineage create the foundation for auditability, compliance, and AI-enabled analytics
The upgrade path from dbt Core
What to expect, how Autofix handles most compatibility work, and what structural improvements surface along the way
Results from teams already running Fusion
Including 30-40% faster runtimes and fresher data delivered to downstream consumers without additional engineering effort
Download the report to see what Fusion changes today—and what it unlocks over the next 12 to 24 months.