Data remains one of the most valuable assets a company has to guide its decision making. How that data is processed, used and presented is changing rapidly and with it the role and skills of data engineers. 

In this fireside chat, Manuka will explore the future of data engineering and the ongoing challenges of overcoming legacy constrains and governance with the latest breakthroughs in AI.

Expect a grounded discussion on:

• What “AI-ready” really means for data engineers

• Engineering through legacy constraints in a highly regulated environment

• Designing ingestion, orchestration, and observability that scale

• Embedding governance and quality without slowing delivery

• What’s next for data engineering in the age of generative AI

Whether you’re building pipelines, managing platforms, or designing modern data infrastructure, this is a rare behind-the-scenes look at how data engineering is evolving to meet the AI moment.

If you read the headlines, you might have sensed that hype and optimism around AI is changing. With talk of an AI bubble bursting, and AI Agents being the latest AI tech to hit the headlines, where does that leave us? 

Agentic systems, vibe coding, and no-code/low-code platforms still hold the promise to reshape how businesses build and deploy technology, but not if done haphazardly. Only with a good long-term plan will they deliver sustainable value at scale

In this fireside chat, Manuka sits down with Lucile Flamand, Chief Strategic Development Officer at Bibby Financial Services, to unpack their AI journey and how they’re driving real business outcomes.  

Attend this session to avoid the hype, sidestep the doomsayers and begin to think long term about how you can see real value from deploying AI Agents. 

How long will it be until an AI first company dominates your industry? Could that disrupter be your business? 

In this keynote, Gareth Martin (CEO of Manuka AI) and Maria Bines (CEO and co-founder of SynapseDX) will challenge comfortable assumptions about how AI should be used. Maria will share how she turned AI agents into a working scrum team — complete with job descriptions, an org chart, and the messy lessons of managing digital workers who don’t behave like humans. Gareth will explore why today’s obsession with “use cases” is a band-aid, and why process-driven adoption is the only way to avoid being disrupted — or irrelevant. 

This session isn’t about safe platitudes. It’s about what’s really happening in the wild, what technical professionals need to prepare for, and why the future of AI could look like seamless orchestration… or a chaotic swarm.