The demand for data engineering keeps growing, but data teams are bored by repetitive tasks, stumped by growing complexity and endlessly harassed by an unrelenting need for speed. What if AI could take the heavy lifting off your hands? What if we make the move away from code-generation and into config-generation — how much more could we achieve? In this session, we’ll explore how AI is revolutionizing data engineering, turning pain points into innovation. Whether you’re grappling with manual schema generation or struggling to ensure data quality, this session offers practical solutions to help you work smarter, not harder. You’ll walk away with a good idea of where AI is going to disrupt the data engineering workload, some good tips around how to accelerate your own workflows and an impending sense of doom around the future of the industry!

Two industry veterans have been debating data architecture, tearing apart trends and tinkering with tech for decades and they’re bringing the conversation live — and you’re in control. Got a burning question about lake structures or internal performance? Worried about AI taking over the world? Want straight-talking opinions on the latest hype? Need real-world advice from the people who the experts get advice from? Want to get the juicy behind-the-scenes gossip about any announcements and shockwaves from the Keynotes? This is your chance to have your questions answered! Submit your questions ahead of time or bring them on the day — no topic is off-limits (though there's always a risk of side quests into coffee, sci-fi, or the quirks of English weather). Come for the insights, stay for the chaos.

Picture the scene — you're exploring a deep, dark cave looking for insights to unearth when, in a burst of smoke, Genie appears and offers you not three but unlimited data wishes. This isn't a folk tale, it's the growing wave of Generative BI that is going to be a part of analytics platforms. Databricks Genie is a tool powered by a SQL-writing LLM that redefines how we interact with data. We'll look at the basics of creating a new Genie room, scoping its data tables and asking questions. We'll help it out with some complex pre-defined questions and ensure it has the best chance of success. We'll give the tool a personality, set some behavioural guidelines and prepare some hidden easter eggs for our users to discover. Generative BI is going to be a fundamental part of the analytics toolset used across businesses. If you're using Databricks, you should be aware of Genie, if you're not, you should be planning your Generative BI Roadmap, and this session will answer your wishes.