In the era of AI agents, data products, and exploding complexity, enterprises face an unprecedented challenge: how to give machines and people, the context needed to make decisions that are accurate, explainable, and trustworthy. 

What if data teams could solve this? 

We'll explore a new opportunity: data teams as the architects and stewards of the “Enterprise Brain”, a unified knowledge layer that connects business concepts, data, and processes across the organization. By treating context as a first-class citizen, organizations can bridge structured and unstructured worlds, govern data and AI agents effectively, and unlock faster, more confident decision-making. 

We'll unpack: 

• Why context and knowledge are becoming the missing pieces of AI readiness. 

• How structured and unstructured data are converging, and why this demands a new governance model. 

• Why ontologies, knowledge graphs, and active governance are critical to managing the coming explosion of AI agents. 

• The unique chance data teams have right now to lead and move from building pipelines to building the enterprise brain. 

We won’t talk tools. We’ll talk possibility. By the end, you’ll see why the most successful organizations of the next decade will be the ones who make their data teams the creators and owners of knowledge itself. 

In a world where AI agents, complex workflows, and accelerating data demands are reshaping every enterprise, the challenge isn’t just managing data, it’s creating trusted context that connects people, processes, and technology. 

Join Rebecca O’Kill, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Axis Capital, for an Honest No-BS conversation about how her team is transforming governance from a compliance checkbox into a strategic enabler of business value. 

Together, we’ll unpack: 

• Minimal Valuable Governance (MVG): why the old ivory tower “govern everything” mindset fails, and how focusing on just enough governance creates immediate business impact. 

• The ACTIVE framework, a practical approach for governance built on: Alignment, Clarity, Trust, Iterative, Value, Enablement 

• How Axis Capital is embedding governance across the organization by uniting the “front office” (what and why) with the “back office” (how). 

• Why context and knowledge are critical for the next era of agentic AI and multi-agent workflows, and how Axis is preparing for it today. 

By the end, you’ll see how Axis Capital is turning governance into a competitive advantage and why this approach is essential for any organization looking to thrive in a world of AI-driven automation and connected workflows. 

Ready to move beyond passive data cataloging and unlock true AI-driven value? Join us for an in-depth session on data.world, now fully integrated with ServiceNow’s Workflow Data Fabric. We’ll show how you can unify, govern, and activate your enterprise data—across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments—to fuel agentic AI and intelligent automation. See a live demo of data.world’s knowledge graph in action: discover how to connect and contextualize data from any source, automate governance and compliance, and deliver trusted, explainable insights at scale. We’ll walk through real-world use cases, from rapid data discovery to automated policy enforcement and lineage tracking, and show how organizations are accelerating time-to-value and reducing risk. Whether you’re a data leader, architect, or practitioner, you’ll leave with practical strategies and a clear vision for making your data estate truly AI-ready. 

As enterprises race to unlock AI, many face barriers like poor metadata and weak governance. In this session, Rebecca O’Kill (CDAO of Axis Capital), Tim Gasper, and Juan Sequeda share how AI is not just the outcome of governance—it’s the incentive. Framing AI as the “carrot” motivates adoption of governance as a strategic enabler. Learn how AI-powered governance, data marketplaces, and knowledge graphs together provide context, drive smarter metadata, and enable impactful AI use cases like underwriting agents that require structured and unstructured data.

Are your outputs generating the right outcomes? I'm in Austin for Data Day Texas, and I reflect on this topic via a conversation I had last night with Juan Sequeda, Tim Gasper, and Santona Tuli.

In 2024, outcomes will matter more than ever. What are you doing to drive the right outcomes for your organization?

Summary

The data ecosystem has seen a constant flurry of activity for the past several years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With all of the products, techniques, and buzzwords being discussed it can be easy to be overcome by the hype. In this episode Juan Sequeda and Tim Gasper from data.world share their views on the core principles that you can use to ground your work and avoid getting caught in the hype cycles.

Announcements

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