The Four Layers of the o9 Enterprise Knowledge Graph

The Editorial Team, o9

Published on: August 17, 2026

Most enterprises can tell you what happened, but far fewer can explain why it happened, which decision shaped the outcome, or whether the same choice should be made again.

That gap becomes especially visible when conditions change. A supplier misses a commitment. Demand shifts unexpectedly. A promotion underperforms. Inventory builds in the wrong place. Teams respond by pulling data from multiple systems, revisiting old presentations, and relying on the people who remember what happened last time.

The information exists, but the context around it is fragmented.

Plans are separated from the assumptions behind them. Decisions are buried in meetings or spreadsheets. Outcomes are reviewed after the fact, but rarely connected back to the exact plan version, policy, or trade-off that produced them.

The o9 Enterprise Knowledge Graph, or EKG, is designed to connect these missing pieces. Let’s jump right in.

Layer 1: The Value-Chain Graph

The first layer, the Value-Chain Graph, represents how value moves through the enterprise.

Most businesses are modeled across disconnected systems. Product data may sit in one place, customer orders in another, capacity information elsewhere, and financial assumptions in spreadsheets. The Value-Chain Graph connects these elements through a common model.

It includes the relatively stable structures that define the business: products, bills of materials, suppliers, plants, distribution centers, customers, contracts, promotions, cost structures, and financial guardrails.

It also represents the facts, assumptions, and plans that change over time.

Layer 1 therefore answers: What does the value chain look like, and what is its current and projected state?

Layer 2: The Decision-Context Graph

The vast majority of companies have systems of record for transactions, but few have a system of record for decisions.

A planning system may show that the forecast changed, inventory was moved, or production was reallocated. It may not show who approved the change, which alternatives were considered, which assumptions were in force, or what outcome was expected.

The second layer, the Decision-Context Graph, addresses this gap.

Layer 2 answers: What did we decide, why did we decide it, and what happened as a result?

Layer 3: The Learned-Rules Graph

Enterprises contain a great deal of experience, but much of it remains tacit.

The third layer, the Learned-Rules Graph, turns that experience into institutional knowledge.

Layer 3 answers: What have we learned, and how should that change the way we plan and decide next time?

Layer 4: The Connected-Compute Graph

The Connected-Compute Graph is the executable engine behind the o9 EKG.

Layer 4 answers: How do we use the enterprise’s data, context, and learned knowledge to take the next best action?

Four layers, one learning loop

As you can see, each layer solves a distinct problem. Combined, they create a continuous learning loop.

This is the shift from an open-loop enterprise, where plans are created and reviewed retrospectively, to a closed-loop operating model that continuously senses, decides, learns, and adapts. The ambition is to create an enterprise system capable of remembering why decisions were made, understanding whether they worked, and applying those lessons at scale.