The world of data is being reset by AI, and the infrastructure needs to evolve with it. I sit down with streaming legend Tyler Akidau to discuss how the principles of stream processing are forming the foundation for the next generation of "agentic AI" systems. Tyler, who was an AI cynic until recently, explains why he's now convinced that AI agents will fundamentally change how businesses operate and what problems we need to solve to deploy them safely. Key topics we explore: From Human Analytics to Agentic Systems: How data architectures built for human analysis must be re-imagined for a world with thousands of AI agents operating at machine speed.Auditing Everything: Why managing AI requires a new level of governance where we must record all data an agent touches, not just metadata, to diagnose its complex and opaque behaviorThe End of Windowing's Dominance: Tyler reflects on the influential Dataflow paper he co-authored and explains why he now sees a table-based abstraction as a more powerful and user-friendly model than focusing on windowing.The D&D Alignment of AI: Tyler's brilliant analogy for why enterprises are struggling to adopt AI: we're trying to integrate "chaotic" agents into systems built for "lawful good" employees.A Reset for the Industry: Why the rise of AI feels like the early 2010s of streaming, where the problems are unsolved and everyone is trying to figure out the answers.

Madison Schott joins me to chat about about her journey from working as an analytics engineer to creating content about dbt, SQL, data modeling, and more.

Aaron Neiderhiser (CEO of Tuva Health) has an audacious goal of improving US healthcare analytics. It all starts with the data. Aaron discusses his journey and obsession with making sense of the gigantic mess of US healthcare data.

Some people speculate that AI will make software and data engineers obsolete. If the only thing engineers do is write code, sure.

But we do a lot more than that, and I believe we'll actually need more engineers, not fewer.

In this episode, I discuss how I think AI will change the craft of software and data engineering. Spoiler - I think it will make it way more fun and productive.

Thanks to dbt and GoodData for sponsoring this episode. Please support them, as they're awesome.

dbt Launch Showcase Join dbt Labs May 28 for the dbt Launch Showcase to hear from executives and product leaders about the latest features landing in dbt. See firsthand how features will empower data practitioners and organizations in the age of AI.

GoodData Webinar Analytics and data engineering used to live in separate worlds—different teams, different tools, different goals. But the lines are blurring fast. As modern data products demand speed, scale, and seamless integration, the best teams are embracing engineering principles and best practices. In this no-BS conversation, Ryan Dolley, Matt Housley, and Joe Reis, dive into how engineering principles are transforming the way analytics is built, delivered, and scaled. 📆 May 27, 2025🕘 9:00 AM PDT, 12:00 PM EDT, 6:00 PM CEST🔗 Register here!

Just wrapped up a whirlwind tour, giving a workshop in Atlanta and then attending Google Cloud Next. B2b nonstop action, and I'm glad to home for a bit.

While at Next, I had a conversation with another tech old timer friend. We talked about how much we're having using AI as a coding assistant. I'm having fun coming up with wild stuff and seeing if it's possible to build with code. AI's made coding fun again!

📈 This episode is brought to you by GoodData. Design and deploy custom data applications and integrate AI-assisted analytics capabilities wherever your users need them.

For more information, visit https://www.gooddata.com

Sarah Levy (CEO of Euno) joins me to chat about modern data governance for analytics.

Euno - https://euno.ai/

Carsten Bange (Founder & CEO of BARC) joins me to chat about trends in data, analytics, and AI.

BARC website: www.barc.com

Carsten on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carsten-bange/

BARC Data Culture Summit: https://barc.com/events/data-culture-summit%20/

BARC DATAfestival: https://barc.com/events/data-festival/

Regular guest Gordon Wong joins me for a half hour to chat about tech stacks for analytics, semantic layers, and much more.

Gordon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonhwong/

Rehgan Bleile joins me to chat about the challenges and importance of AI governance and adoption. We also discuss the lack of representation of women in conferences, and efforts to create genuine opportunities for women speakers. 
 AlignAI: getalignai.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rehganavon/ Women in Analytics: https://www.womeninanalytics.com/

Lindsay Murphy joins me to chat about whether companies are ready for AI in their data and analytics workflows. The verdict - listen and find out more :)

Lindsay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaymurphy4/

Annie Nelson and I chat about her path to data analytics, writing her new book, "How to Become a Data Analyst", bad career advice, rock climbing, and more.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-nelson-analyst/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/annie-nelson-data-analytics

Book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Data-Analyst-Low-Cost/dp/1394202237

My voice is sort of working, and I chat about Tristan Handy's article that raised quite a ruckus this week, "Is the "Modern Data Stack" Still a Useful Idea?"

In the end, the Modern Data Stack won - people use the cloud for analytics. And everything ends, so I'm excited for what's next.

Article: https://roundup.getdbt.com/p/is-the-modern-data-stack-still-a?r=oc02

Solomon Kahn has led data teams at startups and big companies. We talk about the advantages of being a data person in a big company, what makes a good data team, why he thinks embedded analytics suck, his new startup Delivery Layer, and much more.

Delivery Layer: https://www.deliverylayer.com/

Solomon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/solomonkahn/

If you like this show, give it a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast platform.

Purchase Fundamentals of Data Engineering at your favorite bookseller.

Subscribe to my Substack: https://joereis.substack.com/

Paul Blankley and Ryan Janssen are the co-founders of Zenlytic. They started a BI company with an LLM-first approach (back before LLM's were insanely cool). We talk about the future of BI, and how LLM's will change the face of data and analytics.

Zenlytic: https://www.zenlytic.com/

Paul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulblankley/

Ryan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssenryan/

If you like this show, give it a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast platform.

Purchase Fundamentals of Data Engineering at your favorite bookseller.

Subscribe to my Substack: https://joereis.substack.com/

Ryan Dolley and I chat about why BI needs to evolve, moving beyond dashboards, the impact of generative AI on analytics, SuperDataBros, and more.

data #analytics #businessintelligence #datascience

If you like this show, give it a 5-star rating on your favorite podcast platform.

Purchase Fundamentals of Data Engineering at your favorite bookseller.

Check out my substack: https://joereis.substack.com/