Or like tableau- just connects a bunch of disparate databases that normally are very hard to connect and makes it easier to get relevant data. If every county has a different format for storing data on streetlight purchases, but there has been a code update on what makes them safe palantir tries to make it so one person can search for how many and where streetlights need to be replaced without calling up every county and writing custom scripts to parse 100s of DBMS's.

I know this example is less exciting than spying on everyone but despite how they try to hype it up it's a lot more realistic use case.

Or if you want to batch order data subpoenas