As we settle into the new year, it’s the perfect moment to reflect on the significant strides we made with Zoho DataPrep in 2025 and to share our vision for the journey ahead. This past year was about breaking down barriers, making advanced data preparation more intuitive, and empowering teams to turn raw data into reliable insights faster than ever.
Our core mission was, and still is, unchanged: to reinvent the ETL experience for smarter, faster data accessibility. Our goal has been to remove technical barriers to enable teams to seamlessly move, transform, and prepare data from any type of source.
2025: The year of intelligent automation and expanded reach
Here are the key highlights that defined our 2025:
1. AI-powered innovations
Zoho DataPrep has significantly enhanced its generative AI capabilities, making data pipeline creation and preparation more intuitive and efficient:
Ask Zia copilot for building data pipelines: Users can build data pipelines and apply transformations using natural language prompts. The AI assistant automates complex logic, smart pipeline orchestration, and data preparation tasks.
MCP server integration: By supporting the Model Context Protocol, we bridged Zoho DataPrep with advanced AI agents in tools like Claude and Cursor. This allows users to command and control their data pipelines using natural language from within their favorite AI tools.
AI-powered transforms powered by Zoho LLM: Features like Transform by Example, Formula Generator, and Dataset Finder are now fully powered by Zoho LLM, bringing advanced AI-driven assistance directly into Zoho DataPrep without the need for external integrations like OpenAI.
2. Transformative performance with WASM & Native Storage Layer
Beneath the intuitive interface, we engineered massive performance leaps that made working with data feel quick.
Introducing WebAssembly (WASM): We've made data previews in Zoho DataPrep faster and more responsive than ever. By using advanced WebAssembly technology, previews for joins, filters, and cluster now load 25 times faster. This means less waiting, better performance, and a smoother, more interactive data preparation experience for you.
Join previews: Accelerated by ~99.9%
Cluster & merge groups: Executing 25–100 times faster
String filtering: Performance improved by 2,000–10,000%
Data Storage optimization in Zoho DataPrep: With this enhancement, we now write DataFrames to native formats without the need for additional transformation layers and parsing requirements. This not only simplifies the data processing pipeline but also unlocks better performance and lower storage space.
This significantly reduces pipeline run time from 54 minutes to 34 minutes and storage space from 6.1 GB to 1.7 GB, achieving over 39% faster execution and 70% lower storage use.
3. 20+ new connectors added to our ecosystem
Zoho DataPrep expanded its integration library in 2025 to support a wider range of systems across marketing, CRM, ecommerce, and analytics. New connectors include Salesforce, HubSpot, BigCommerce, Xero, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, and more. With 90+ connectors, DataPrep simplifies unified data access and preparation across cloud platforms.
4. Workspace management became effortless
Managing complex data flows was streamlined with usability-focused enhancements:
A mini-map view for easy navigation of large, multi-stage pipelines
Workspace and pipeline duplication to accelerate prototyping and A/B testing
Copy-paste support for reusing data flows, coupled with manual run options for controlled data refreshes
5. Optimized integrations across Zoho Apps
Zoho DataPrep introduced a deeper, more flexible integration with Zoho’s ecosystem in 2025, including:
Layout-specific export to Zoho CRM, allowing better alignment with custom CRM configurations
Direct import and export with Zoho Bigin for seamless customer data synchronization
Environment-specific support (sandbox and production) for both Zoho CRM and Zoho Creator connectors, enabling safer testing and deployment workflows
6. Data quality, governance, and security enhancements
Zoho DataPrep continued to strengthen its enterprise readiness with powerful updates focused on trust, compliance, and control:
Enhanced deduplicate transform that flags duplicates in a separate column, enabling non-destructive review and audit-friendly workflows
Snowflake connector upgrades with support for OAuth and private key authentication, improving integration security
SFTP key-file-based authentication for more secure connections
7. Seamlessly embed advanced ETL capabilities into your business applications
A standout capability that gained traction was our embedded integration solution. Independent software vendors (ISVs), developers, and enterprises are now seamlessly weaving Zoho DataPrep’s powerful ETL engine directly into their custom applications, SaaS products, and legacy systems. This is proving to be pivotal for businesses modernizing their infrastructure, such as bridging legacy ERP data with modern cloud CRMs, all without users ever leaving their primary workflow.
Explore the full list of updates here:What's New in Zoho DataPrep
What to expect in 2026: Power, flexibility, and automation
As we look forward, our roadmap is designed to add even more power and flexibility to your data movement and preparation toolkit. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s coming:
1. 50+ more connectors
Zoho DataPrep will continue to expand its connector library to strengthen the integration ecosystem and support a broader range of data management use cases.
2. Code Studio: Built-in Python and SQL scripting for advanced data transformation
We’re excited to introduce Code Studio, a built-in scripting environment for Python and SQL directly within your pipelines. This will cater to advanced use cases:
Python for advanced transformations: Apply custom logic and complex parsing.
SQL for data manipulation: Use familiar SQL syntax for joins, aggregations, and more.
Python for data science & ML: Prepare ML-ready datasets and run statistical analyses.
3. Variables: Build dynamic and reusable pipeline workflows
The introduction of variables will allow you to define reusable dynamic values across pipeline steps. This means more adaptable, easier-to-maintain workflows as your business logic evolves.
4. Event-driven pipelines with triggers & actions
Automation will reach new levels with support for event-driven pipelines. Automate workflows by triggering actions like running a pipeline or exporting data based on events such as a file upload or a connector update. This is ideal for real-time syncs and embedded use cases.
5. Improved performance and scalability
Building on our 2025 performance wins, we're investing in a significantly enhanced processing engine to allow you to work with larger data samples during preview and transformation. This translates to more accurate profiling, better-informed transformations, and smooth scalability for enterprise datasets.
Wrapping up
At Zoho DataPrep, our mission is to reinvent what an ETL tool can do for every agile team that relies on clean, reliable data.
The 2025 updates make it easier than ever to integrate, transform, and manage data across your systems with a user-friendly, no-code experience that fits right into your workflow. As we move into 2026, we remain focused on strengthening our ETL capabilities to better serve the needs of enterprise-scale solutions.
We’re excited about what’s ahead, and, as always, we value your input. If there’s a specific feature or improvement you’re dreaming of, feel free to drop your thoughts or questions in the comments! We’d love to hear your feedback.
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