A data fabric is an architecture that provides unified access to data spread across distributed systems. It connects sources through a metadata layer, data integration, and virtualization, so teams can query data without first moving it into a single store.
A global manufacturer, for example, uses a data fabric to query plant, supplier, and sales data through one access layer while the records stay in their original systems.
A data fabric solves access and integration across silos. On its own, it does not make the data ready for reliable AI execution. Unified access is one layer; the reproducibility and traceability of the data state that an AI result depends on sit above it. The two address different problems.