Recently, classification systems have received significant attention among researchers due to the important characteristics and behaviors of analysis required in real-time databases. Among the various classification-based methods suitable for real-time databases, fuzzy rule-based classification is effectively used by different researchers in various fields. An important issue in the design of fuzzy rule-based classification is the automatic generation of fuzzy if-then rules and the membership functions. The literature presents different techniques for automatic fuzzy design. Among the different techniques available in the literature, choosing the type, the number of membership functions, and defining parameters of membership function are still challenging tasks. In order to handle these challenges in the fuzzy rule-based classification system, this paper proposes a brain genetic fuzzy system (BGFS) for data classification by newly devising the exponential genetic brain storm optimization. Here, membership functions are optimally devised using exponential genetic brain storm optimization algorithm and rules are derived using the exponential brain storm optimization algorithm. The designed membership function and fuzzy rules are then effectively utilized for data classification. The proposed BGFS is analyzed with four datasets, using sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. The outcome ensures that the proposed BGFS obtained the maximum accuracy of 88.8%, which is high as compared with the existing adaptive genetic fuzzy system. © 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2018.