DatAInnovators & Builders

Nexla

DatAInnovators & Builders features Chief Data Officers and data leaders sharing real strategies for conquering data complexity and building AI solutions that work. Host Saket Saurabh, CEO of Nexla, delivers practical insights on tackling data variety, moving AI from pilot to production, and making transformation actually happen.

  1. ٣٠ يونيو

    Why a data catalog isn't ready for AI agents without a semantic layer

    What happens when a company built on 16 acquisitions tries to run on one trusted data model? At Precisely, Dave Shuman has spent six years building the data infrastructure needed to take the business from a $300M mid-market firm to a billion-dollar global software company, and the lessons from that journey cut straight to the heart of what makes or breaks an enterprise AI strategy. Dave outlines for Saket why most AI initiatives fail before they start: organizations skip the unglamorous work of cataloging, semantic alignment, and quality observability in a rush to get to the model. He breaks down how Precisely is building the semantic layer that lets agents operate autonomously, why data governance needs to feel like a supple leather glove rather than an iron fist, and what the CDO role has to become if it wants to stay relevant in an AI-first organization. Topics discussed: Why most transformative AI starts with a data catalog, not code Building a semantic layer so agents can operate autonomously Managing AI model overconfidence in production rollouts Distinguishing active governance from passive governance in agentic workflows Structuring data products across raw, component, and trusted zones Integrating unstructured documents into structured data pipelines What the CDO role must become in an AI-first organization Lessons from scaling through acquisitions and closing on one set of systems

    Why a data catalog isn't ready for AI agents without a semantic layer
  2. ١٦ يونيو

    Agent management: how do you govern AI you didn't build

    What happens when half the room at a Gartner executive workshop raises their hand to say they've shipped AI to production and tracked ROI? Conor Jensen, Global Field CDO at Dataiku, uses that moment to reframe the entire "AI is failing" narrative and get specific about what separates the companies making it work from the ones still stuck in prototype mode. Conor walks Saket through the compounding mistakes he sees across enterprise AI programs, from skipping legal and governance early, to misreading which problems data can actually solve, to deploying tools company-wide before proving a single use case. The conversation covers data products, agent management, the limits of code generation tools for data teams, and why the "citizen data scientist" framing has always been slightly wrong. Topics discussed: - Why close to half of executives at a recent Gartner workshop reported tracked AI ROI - Engaging legal and compliance early as a speed accelerator, not a blocker - Building a use case prioritization process as a core organizational capability - Treating AI outputs as data products that require ongoing ownership and maintenance - Semantic and context layers as the foundation for AI-ready data products - Managing agents deployed out of the box in enterprise platforms versus custom-built agents - Why code generation tools are less effective for data engineering than software development - The meteorologist reframe: domain experts gaining new tools, not becoming data scientists - Where 50 to 60 percent of data team backlogs can be self-served by the business - Why predictive analytics projects hit dead ends in non-tech companies with limited data volume

    Agent management: how do you govern AI you didn't build

حول

DatAInnovators & Builders features Chief Data Officers and data leaders sharing real strategies for conquering data complexity and building AI solutions that work. Host Saket Saurabh, CEO of Nexla, delivers practical insights on tackling data variety, moving AI from pilot to production, and making transformation actually happen.