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The relationship between AI and data professionals is evolving rapidly, creating both opportunities and challenges. As companies embrace AI-first strategies and experiment with AI agents, the skills needed to thrive in data roles are fundamentally changing. Is coding knowledge still essential when AI can generate code for you? How important is domain expertise when automated tools can handle technical tasks? With data engineering and analytics engineering gaining prominence, the focus is shifting toward ensuring data quality and building reliable pipelines. But where does the human fit in this increasingly automated landscape, and how can you position yourself to thrive amid these transformations? Megan Bowers is Senior Content Manager, Digital Customer Success at Alteryx, where she develops resources for the Maveryx Community. She writes technical blogs and hosts the Alter Everything podcast, spotlighting best practices from data professionals across the industry. Before joining Alteryx, Megan worked as a data analyst at Stanley Black & Decker, where she led ETL and dashboarding projects and trained teams on Alteryx and Power BI. Her transition into data began after earning a degree in Industrial Engineering and completing a data science bootcamp. Today, she focuses on creating accessible, high-impact content that helps data practitioners grow. Her favorite topics include switching career paths after college, building a professional brand on LinkedIn, writing technical blogs people actually want to read, and best practices in Alteryx, data visualization, and data storytelling. Presented by Alteryx, Alter Everything serves as a podcast dedicated to the culture of data science and analytics, showcasing insights from industry specialists. Covering a range of subjects from the use of machine learning to various analytics career trajectories, and all that lies between, Alter Everything stands as a celebration of the critical role of data literacy in a data-driven world. In the episode, Richie and Megan explore the impact of AI on job functions, the rise of AI agents in business, and the importance of domain knowledge and process analytics in data roles. They also discuss strategies for staying updated in the fast-paced world of AI and data science, and much more. Links Mentioned in the Show: Alter EverythingConnect with MeganSkill Track: Alteryx FundamentalsRelated Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of AlteryxRewatch RADAR AI  New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

Whether big or small, one of the biggest challenges organizations face when they want to work with data effectively is often lack of access to it. This is where building a data platform comes in. But building a data platform is no easy feat. It's not just about centralizing data in the data warehouse, it’s also about making sure that data is actionable, trustable and usable. So, how do you make sure your data platform is up to par? Shuang Li is Group Product Manager at Box. With experience of building data, analytics, ML, and observability platform products for both external and internal customers, Shuang is always passionate about the insights, optimizations, and predictions that big data and AI/ML make possible. Throughout her career, she transitioned from academia to engineering, from engineering to product management, and then from an individual contributor to an emerging product executive. In the episode, Adel and Shuang explore her career journey, including transitioning from academia to engineering and helping to work on Google Fiber, how to build a data platform, ingestion pipelines, processing pipelines, challenges and milestones in building a data platform, data observability and quality, developer experience, data democratization, future trends and a lot more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: BoxConnect with Shuang on Linkedin[Course] Understanding Modern Data ArchitectureRelated Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of Alteryx New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

Loyalty schemes are a hallmark of established retailers—not only do they build consumer trust, they are intelligent and constantly evolving, and Tesco’s Clubcard is the UK’s favorite retail loyalty program. The effects of these discounts are far-reaching, especially for families who rely on getting the best deals to make the most of their money. As Tesco’s tagline goes, every little helps. In turn, the identification and specific details of discounted products can have a profound impact on how consumers view the largest supermarket retailer in the United Kingdom, as well as the operational costs and profits that shareholders are concerned with. How do data and AI inform these offers, what goes into the enterprise-scale analytics that keeps Tesco’s Clubcard the UK’s favorite? Venkat Raghavan is Director of Analytics and Science at Tesco. Venkat’s area of expertise is customer analytics, having been very heavily involved with the Tesco Clubcard loyalty program. Venkat also set up an analytics center of excellence to help break down data silos between teams. Previously, he was a Director of Analytics at Boston Consulting Group and Senior Director for Advanced Analytics & AI for Manthan and a Cross Industry Delivery Leader at Mu Sigma. In the episode, Richie and Venkat explore Tesco’s use of data, the introduction of the clubcard scheme, Tesco’s data-driven innovations in online food retail, understanding customer behavior through loyalty programs and in-app interactions, improving customer experience at Tesco, operating a cohesive data intelligence platform that leverages multiple data sources, communication between data and business teams, pricing and cost management, the challenges of data science at scale, the future of data and much more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: Tesco ClubcardMcKinsey: State of Grocery Europe 2024[Course] Data Science for BusinessRelated Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of AlteryxSign up to RADAR: AI Edition New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile app Empower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

Everything in the world has a price, including improving and scaling your data and AI functions. That means that at some point someone will question the ROI of your projects, and often, these projects will be looked at under the lens of monetization. But how do you ensure that what you’re working on is not only providing value to the business but also creating financial gain? What conditions need to be met to prove your project's success and turn value into cash? Vin Vashishta is the author of ‘From Data to Profit’ (Wiley), the playbook for monetizing data and AI. He built V-Squared from client 1 to one of the oldest data and AI consulting firms. For the last eight years, he has been recognized as a data and AI thought leader. Vin is a LinkedIn Top Voice and Gartner Ambassador. His background spans over 25 years in strategy, leadership, software engineering, and applied machine learning. Dr. Tiffany Perkins-Munn is on a mission to bring research, analytics, and data science to life. She earned her Ph.D. in Social-Personality Psychology with an interdisciplinary focus on Advanced Quantitative Methods. Her insights are the subject of countless lectures on psychology, statistics, and their real-world applications. As the Head of Data and Analytics for the innovative CDAO organization at J.P. Morgan Chase, her knack involves unraveling complex business problems through operational enhancements, augmented financials, and intuitive recruiting. After over two decades in the industry, she consistently forges robust relationships across the corporate spectrum, becoming one of the Top 10 Finalists in the Merrill Lynch Global Markets Innovation Program. In the episode, Richie, Vin, and Tiffany explore the challenges of monetizing data and AI projects, including how technical, organizational, and strategic factors affect your input, the importance of aligning technical and business objectives to keep outputs focused on core business goals, how to assess your organization's data and AI maturity, examples of high data maturity businesses, data security and compliance, quick wins in data transformation and infrastructure, why long-term vision and strategy matter, and much more. Links Mentioned in the Show: Connect with Tiffany on LinkedinConnect with Vin on LinkedinVin’s Website[Course] Data Governance Concepts Related Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of Alteryx New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

Databases are ubiquitous, and you don’t need to be a data practitioner to know that all data everywhere is stored in a database—or is it? While the majority of data around the world lives in a database, the data that helps run the heart of our operating systems—the core functions of our computers— is not stored in the same place as everywhere else. This is due to database storage sitting ‘above’ the operating system, requiring the OS to run before the databases can be used. But what if the OS was built ‘on top’ of a database? What difference could this fundamental change make to how we use computers? Mike Stonebraker is a distinguished computer scientist known for his foundational work in database systems, he is also currently CTO & Co-Founder At DBOS. His extensive career includes significant contributions through academic prototypes and commercial startups, leading to the creation of several pivotal relational database companies such as Ingres Corporation, Illustra, Paradigm4, StreamBase Systems, Tamr, Vertica, and VoltDB. Stonebraker's role as chief technical officer at Informix and his influential research earned him the prestigious 2014 Turing Award. Stonebraker's professional journey spans two major phases: initially at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on relational database management systems like Ingres and Postgres, and later, from 2001 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he pioneered advanced data management techniques including C-Store, H-Store, SciDB, and DBOS. He remains a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley and continues to influence as an adjunct professor at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Stonebraker is also recognized for his editorial work on the book "Readings in Database Systems." In the episode, Richie and Mike explore the the success of PostgreSQL, the evolution of SQL databases, the shift towards cloud computing and what that means in practice when migrating to the cloud, the impact of disaggregated storage, software and serverless trends, the role of databases in facilitating new data and AI trends, DBOS and it’s advantages for security, and much more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: DBOSPaper: What Goes Around Comes Around[Course] Understanding Cloud ComputingRelated Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of AlteryxRewatch sessions from RADAR: The Analytics Edition New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business

Over the past 199 episodes of DataFramed, we’ve heard from people at the forefront of data and AI, and over the past year we’ve constantly looked ahead to the future AI might bring. But all of the technologies and ways of working we’ve witnessed have been built on foundations that were laid decades ago. For our 200th episode, we’re bringing you a special guest and taking a walk down memory lane—to the creation and development of one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Don Chamberlin is renowned as the co-inventor of SQL (Structured Query Language), the predominant database language globally, which he developed with Raymond Boyce in the mid-1970s. Chamberlin's professional career began at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, New York, following a summer internship there during his academic years. His work on IBM's System R project led to the first SQL implementation and significantly advanced IBM’s relational database technology. His contributions were recognized when he was made an IBM Fellow in 2003 and later a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in 2009 for his pioneering work on SQL and database architectures. Chamberlin also contributed to the development of XQuery, an XML query language, as part of the W3C, which became a W3C Recommendation in January 2007. Additionally, he holds fellowships with ACM and IEEE and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In the episode, Richie and Don explore his early career at IBM and the development of his interest in databases alongside Ray Boyce, the database task group (DBTG), the transition to relational databases and the early development of SQL, the commercialization and adoption of SQL, how it became standardized, how it evolved and spread via open source, the future of SQL through NoSQL and SQL++ and much more.  Links Mentioned in the Show: The first-ever journal paper on SQL. SEQUEL: A Structured English Query LanguageDon’s Book: SQL++ for SQL Users: A TutorialSystem R: Relational approach to database managementSQL CoursesSQL Articles, Tutorials and Code-AlongsRelated Episode: Scaling Enterprise Analytics with Libby Duane Adams, Chief Advocacy Officer and Co-Founder of AlteryxRewatch sessions from RADAR: The Analytics Edition New to DataCamp? Learn on the go using the DataCamp mobile appEmpower your business with world-class data and AI skills with DataCamp for business