It's About Data

We're joined by guests Thais Cooke and Jenna Jordan to discuss the themes of their respective talks at Data Day Texas 2026: human connection, library science, provenance and community.#artificialintelligence #libraryscience #dataanalytics

Yitzhak Kesselman (Corporate Vice President  @Microsoft  ) joins us to discuss Microsoft Fabric IQ and the combination of two approaches to AI: traditional "signals" machine learning and LLM based reasoning.#dataanalytics #artificialintelligence #machinelearning

MCP comes to the big city! Andrew Brust joins us to report on MCP Dev Summit in New York City. How can MCP go from MVP to the enterprise? Are enterprises ready for MCP?https://events.linuxfoundation.org/mcp-dev-summit-north-america/Kierra Dotson's talk:https://mcpdevsummitna26.sched.com/event/2Hbg3/protocol-evolution-adapting-the-model-context-protocol-for-slms-and-the-edge-kierra-dotson-further#mcp #agenticai  @LinuxfoundationOrg   @AgenticAI-Foundation ​

Joe Reis joins the show to talk about his upcoming data modeling book, GTA 6, and AI's impact on data engineering.Joe's Substack on data modeling:https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/Fundamentals of Data Engineering:https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/fundamentals-of-data/9781098108298/#aitools #aicoding #dataengineering

Lena Hall joins us to discuss the promise and peril of coding with AI agents. This episode was recorded at Data Day Texas 2026.#artificialintelligence #aicoding #aiagents

Jessica Talisman joins us for another episode in our one year anniversary series to discuss her recently published essay on declining literacy skills in the United States.https://jessicatalisman.substack.com/p/were-losing-the-ability-to-readWe discuss connections with AI, library science, writing and knowledge. This conversation is a continuation of episode 56. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Y6JA2Jbh9Ze2aoI7kvzQE#literacy #artificialintelligence #writing

Paige Roberts (industry analyst, consultant, writer) joins us for a discussion at Data Day Texas 2026.#artificialintelligence #humanconnection #aiethics

"Saying context graph is like saying wet water." Jessica Talisman joins us to discuss the outlook on knowledge in the midst of the AI boom. This episode is part of our first anniversary series—Jessica was one of our early guests in episode 19.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ypGZGUtTviieiOHk1NZyk?si=fbee300adc644fa5Jessica's substack:https://jessicatalisman.substack.com/#artificialintelligence #knowledgegraph

Jean-Georges Perrin ( @Actian  ) joins us to discuss AI-ready data. Also in the mix: data products, data contracts, Bitol, and the human context that we're still working to capture. This episode was recorded at Data Day Texas 2026.actian.combito.iohttps://datadaytexas.com/#dataanalytics #datagovernance #artificialintelligence

Juan Sequeda (ServiceNow) was one of our first guest and joins us for this special 1st anniversary episode. He imparts lessons learned in years of building ontologies.Catalog and Cocktails, Juan's podcast with Tim Gasper.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/catalog-cocktails-the-honest-no-bs-data-podcast/id1524652737#artificialintelligence #dataanalytics

Miran Badzak (Executive Director, Databases  @IBM  ) joins us to roadmap the future for AI-driven database autonomy and discuss some major announcements for IBM Db2.

Russell Spitzer joins us at Data Day Texas 2026 to discuss his work on the Apache Iceberg project.#dataanalytics #datamanagement #opensource

Andrew Brust (CEO of bluebadgeinsights.com) joins us to discuss the hype and excitement around AI agents. This episode continues the conversation from episode 50.Episode 50:https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/ebTJzJGTv1b#aiagents #aihype #dataanalytics

"It brings AI to Fabric and Fabric to AI." Andrew Brust (Blue Badge Insights) is the rare polymath who combines hardcore technical chops with industry analytics prowess. He brings his experience to this episode to discuss how Microsoft Fabric IQ helps AI to be an intelligent consumer of business data.https://www.bluebadgeinsights.com/#artificialintelligence #dataanalytics

We chat with Aaron Black ( @oreilly  ) about the state of tech publishing. Do we still need books when we have AI? What do physical books have to do with vinyl records? This episode was recorded at Data Day Texas 2026.#artificialintelligence #techindustry #publishing

This is a continuation of the conversation with Bruno in episode 47. What do you get for the enterprise that has everything? We've had systems of record, systems of engagement, and systems of intelligence for some time, but now it's time for action.Episode 47:https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ewPRBEDo6B7jL4WF8s92K?si=gE2EXLTfSE-0kpSOffOQYABruno's substack:https://carcast.substack.com/#artificialintelligence #dataanalytics

Bruno Aziza ( @IBM  ) joins the show to discuss trust, hybrid cloud, hybrid model strategy, and systems of action.#dataanalytics #hybridcloud #artificialintelligence

In this episode, we sit down with Patrick McFadin (IBM) at Data Day Texas 2026.

Dave Mariani discusses how AtScale became a 13 year overnight success by serving the semantic needs of AI agents.#dataanalytics #aiagents

We preview Data Day Texas 2026 from Austin Texas. Crazy weather, ontologies, knowledge graphs, context graphs, semantics, the rebirth of the modern data stack, etc.#dataanalytics #artificialintelligence

Sudhir Hasbe (President and CPO,  @neo4j  ) joins us to discuss the excitement around context graphs.Links related to this episode:A blog post on knowledge graphs.https://neo4j.com/blog/genai/hands-on-with-context-graphs-and-neo4j/A context graph demo site:https://context-graph-demo.vercel.app/A case study with Electronic Arts:https://neo4j.com/customer-stories/technology-media-company/The blog post that brought context graphs to the fore:https://foundationcapital.com/context-graphs-ais-trillion-dollar-opportunity/

This episode continues the conversation between John Rymer and Rick Greenwald (analysis.tech) from Ep. 41. Amongst the disagreements, we see some common ground.YouTube link: https://youtu.be/zxfZiqMJwvkEp 41: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0HHXKDhKVaAAIpl6vISfrH?si=hphHlcUKTC6fUDQIC9BJxQ#aiagents #dataanalytics #database #softwaredevelopment

Rick Greenwald and John Rymer (analysis.tech) come from opposing camps in a longstanding conflict: data vs app development. In this episode, they strive toward a detente.YouTube link:https://youtu.be/z3BZFF2B7RM

Happy New Year! We review 2025 and prognosticate about 2026. Have you thought about semantics this year?Links related to this episode:Data 2026 outlook: The rise of semantic spheres of influencehttps://siliconangle.com/2026/01/05/data-2026-outlook-rise-semantic-spheres-influence/ A discussion of PuppyGraph, a graph query engines:https://youtu.be/nmKvGmRWRmsJoe Reis's substack on data modeling:https://practicaldatamodeling.substack.com/Generative AI Design Patterns:https://youtu.be/OXgkkZufFfMhttps://www.oreilly.com/library/view/generative-ai-design/9798341622654/OpenAI's latest round:https://www.economist.com/business/2025/12/29/openai-faces-a-make-or-break-year-in-2026Tech IPOshttps://gizmodo.com/2026-is-poised-to-be-the-year-of-the-tech-ipo-will-it-also-be-the-year-the-ai-bubble-bursts-2000704395Databricks latest round and the possibility of an IPO:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2025-12-16/databricks-ceo-on-4b-funding-round-ipo-plans-and-ai-videoAli Ghodsi on AI agents:https://www.businessinsider.com/when-ai-automation-replacing-humans-databricks-ceo-ali-ghodsi-2025-6Check out Data Day Texas here:https://datadaytexas.com/You can use our code (ITSABOUTDATA) for a discount on tickets.#artificialintelligence #data #ai2026

Dinesh Chandrasekhar (Principal, @stratolallc) joins us to discuss his recent report on Architectural Intelligence. His core thesis is that we need to extend the capabilities of enterprise observability to reduce siloing and better manage the power and risks of AI workloads.Link to the report:https://stratola.com/architectural-intelligence-a-new-paradigm-for-enterprise-visibility-in-the-ai-era/

We're joined by Lak Lakshman to discuss his book Generative AI Design Patterns (Oreillly Media). Lak is also the cofounder of Obin.ai.Link to the book:https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/generative-ai-design/9798341622654/

We're joined by Justin Borgman, CEO of Starburst, to discuss data products and data federation for AI. We also cover the company's recently announced membership in OSI (Open Semantic Interchange).#agenticai #dataanalytics

IBM announced the acquisition of Confluent; what does this mean for hybrid cloud, agents and open source?#cloudcomputing #aiagents #opensource

Tony reports on his yearly pilgrimage to AWS re:invent.#awsreinvent2025 #aws #agenticai

Weimo Liu, CEO of PuppyGraph, joins us to discuss a new approach to graph analytics, bringing a graph query engine to existing relational and columnar data stores.#graphdatabase #dataanalytics #dataengineering

We're joined by Francois Lopitaux (SVP Product Management, ThoughSpot) to discuss the rise of semantic layers as a key source of agentic AI context, and the development of Open Semantic Interchange to facilitate sharing between tools and platforms.#dataanalytics #agenticai

This is a continuation of our conversation with Sanjeev Mohan in episode 27. We discuss the implications of Open Semantic Interchange, a data industry alliance designed to streamline semantic model sharing. Sanjeev also relates his experiences traveling to China for tech industry conferences.#dataanalyticsEp 27 link:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1AnyrsnDKryuOKCSOY1VLX?si=9H-P-zvkSdKueaQcM25eYw

John Santaferraro, host of The Digital Analyst Podcast, drops by to discuss practical deployment of AI and agents at his clients and in the broader data industry.The Digital Analyst Podcastthedigitalanalyst.aihttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLivd8WaRu-XkJsuP8YAtk8T1QYRYlEkD5&si=bIzbB3rCMBdq2YBW @InsightJam  https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsantaferraro/ferraroconsulting.com#agenticai #artificialintelligence #dataanalytics

We discuss Oracle AI World 2025. After forty years of database dominance, is Oracle becoming a cloud infrastructure company? How solid is Oracle's backlog? Will OpenAI pay its bills?#oracledatabase #oracle #cloudcomputing

We're joined by Amit Ganesh (VP of Engineering | AI and Databases | Google) to discuss Target's recent search overhaul powered by AlloyDB AI.A related blog post:https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/retail/from-query-to-cart-inside-targets-search-bar-overhaul-with-alloydb-ai#vectordatabase #postgresql #artificialintelligence

Martin Willcox joins Tony and Matt at Teradata Possible 2025 to discuss the challenges of deploying agents in the field. How do we help agents understand the needs of customers even though they're 'not the sharpest tools in the box'?#agenticai #vectordatabase #largelanguagemodels

This episode, special guest Sanjeev Mohan joins Tony and Matt to discuss acquisitions, rumors of acquisitions and the perpetual AI capital machine.#artificialintelligence, #openai, Fivetran, DBT, #databricks

We're joined by guest John O'Brien to discuss the universal semantic layer.https://radiant-advisors.kit.com/e293763bb5#dataengineering #dataanalytics #datamodeling

We discuss Graph Summit NYC and Neo4j. Graph RAG, knowledge graphs, agentic logic, Infinigraph and more.#dataengineering #graphdatabase #agenticai

Our guest this time is Ryan Gross of Caylent, here to discuss a recently commissioned report on The Database Migration Bottleneck. This was catnip for data nerds like us. Among other things, we discuss why 94% of database migrations miss deadlines and how to use AI to effectively build test driven automation.https://caylent.com/blog/the-database-modernization-bottleneck-survey-report#artificialintelligence #cloudcomputing #dataanalytics

Oracle disclosed a massive backlog as part of its Q1 earnings call.#cloudcomputing #artificialintelligence

In this episode, we discuss an under the radar data company that powers some massive platforms.It's About Data is a media sponsor of http://datadaytexas.com/ 2026. Register with discount code ITSABOUTDATA.#dataanalytics #healthcaredata #venturecapital

Dave Langer joins Tony and Matt to discuss his upcoming book "Python in Excel: step-by-step."#excel #python #dataanalytics #artificialintelligence

Ollie Hughes (CEO of Count.co) joins Tony and Matt for episode 20. How can #data teams rise above the noise? How will data roles evolve when basic technical tasks are automated?YouTube link:https://youtu.be/1Rm7jySLkogCheck out Count:count.co#dataanalytics #artificialintelligence

Jessica Talisman joins Tony and Matt to discuss the current limitations of AI systems, and finding solutions in knowledge infrastructure and knowledge engineering.Learn more about Jessica's work:https://ontologypipeline.com/https://jessicatalisman.substack.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmtalisman/#artificialintelligence #knowledgegraphs #ontology

Tony gets a blast of AI related news at AWS Summit 2025 NYC.#modelcontextprotocol #aiagents #vectordatabase

Nvidia just hit a record market capitalization of $4.2 trillion. We interrupt our summer lull to give our hot take#nvidia #generativeai #deeplearning

We're joined by guests Mehul Shah and Kambiz Aghili to discuss Oracle Database@AWS. What do broadening multi-cloud partnerships mean for customers and cloud architects?#amazonwebservices #oracle #cloudcomputing #dataengineering

Tony and Matt follow up the previous episode's review of first half announcements with a discussion of major themes for the year to date. Acquisitions, rebundling the modern data stack, data products, interop and the future of engineers in an #artificialintelligence driven industry.

Tony and Matt review vendor news from the first half of 2025. In short: agents, agents, agents.#aiagents #enterpriseai #cloudcomputing #datawarehousing