AI agents are the next essential enterprise capability, but they bring new complexities in control, safety, and scale. In this interactive session, see how you can design, deploy, and govern agents alongside your existing analytics and models.

The path to AI enablement runs through governance. High-quality data, model transparency, and ethical oversight aren’t barriers — they are accelerators. In this talk, we’ll connect the dots between Data Governance and AI Governance, show how unified governance, helps embed new requirements to existing processes, while fostering innovation. We will discuss actionable steps to build AI-ready organisations that innovate with proper guardrails.

Analytics engineers are at a crossroads. Back in 2018, dbt paved the way for for this new kind of data professional, people who had technical ability and could understand business context. But here's the thing: AI is automating traditional tasks like pipeline building and dashboard creation. So then what happens to analytics engineers? They don't disappear - they evolve.

The same skills that made analytics engineers valuable also make them perfect for a new role I'm calling 'Analytics Intelligence Engineers.' Instead of writing SQL, they're writing the context that makes AI actually useful for business users.

In this talk, I'll show you what this evolution looks like day-to-day. We'll explore building semantic layers, crafting AI context, and measuring AI performance - all through real examples using Lightdash. You'll see how the work shifts from data plumbing to data intelligence, and walk away with practical tips for making AI tools more effective in your organization. Whether you're an analytics engineer wondering about your future or a leader planning your data strategy, this session will help you understand where the field is heading and how to get there.

This session will explore Merlin Entertainments’ data transformation journey in partnership with Telefónica Tech. Starting from a position of minimal governance and limited internal capability, Merlin Entertainments has built a federated data strategy, implemented agile data product teams, and delivered impactful use cases such as the Genie AI. This talk will highlight how Merlin Entertainments developed a partner-agnostic delivery model to embed expertise and drive business value. Attendees will gain practical insights into structuring data teams, overcoming transformation hurdles, and leveraging partnerships to innovate at scale.

In a world where data defines destiny, creativity is being reimagined through the lens of artificial intelligence. This session brings together Payal Jain, Chair of Women in Data®, Benjamin Field, Executive Producer at Deep Fusion Films and Roisin McCarthy, Founder Women in Data® for a candid conversation about their pioneering partnership at the intersection of data, storytelling, and AI.

Together, they will explore how Deep Fusion Films is pushing the boundaries of creative AI, from avatar-led cinematic experiences to AI-assisted documentaries and why the arts must embrace this evolution. The discussion will unpack the ethical considerations that come with innovation, the importance of human-centred design, and the role of inclusive collaboration in shaping responsible creative futures.

Expect insights into how AI is not just a technical revolution but a human one, and why the next generation of artists, technologists, and data leaders must co-create with purpose. This session is a celebration of imagination, impact, and the power of partnership.

Powered by: Women in Data®

The modern enterprise is increasingly defined by the need for open, governed, and intelligent data access. This session explores how Apache Iceberg, Dremio, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) come together to enable the Agentic Lakehouse. A data platform that is interoperable, high-performing, and AI-ready.

We’ll begin with Apache Iceberg, which provides the foundation for data interoperability across teams and organisations, ensuring shared datasets can be reliably accessed and evolved. From there, we’ll highlight how Dremio extends Iceberg with turnkey governance, management, and performance acceleration, unifying your lakehouse with databases and warehouses under one platform. Finally, we’ll introduce MCP and showcase how innovations like the Dremio MCP server enable natural-language analytics on your data. 

With the power of Dremio’s built-in semantic layer, AI agents and humans alike can ask complex business questions in plain language and receive accurate, governed answers.

Join us to learn how to unlock the next generation of data interaction with the Agentic Lakehouse.

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The growth of connected data has made graph databases essential, yet organisations often face a dilemma: choosing between an operational graph for real-time queries or an analytical engine for large-scale processing. This division leads to data silos and complex ETL pipelines, hindering the seamless integration of real-time insights with deep analytics and the ability to ground AI models in factual, enterprise-specific knowledge. Google Cloud aims to solve this with a unified "Graph Fabric," introducing Spanner Graph, which extends Spanner with native support for the ISO standard Graph Query Language (GQL). This session will cover how Google Cloud has developed a Unified Graph Solution with BigQuery and Spanner graphs to serve a full spectrum of graph needs from operational to analytical.

As brands grow and scale, the increasing number of customer data sources creates fragmented profiles, which obscures high-value customers and prevents effective personalisation. Join New Look’s Chief Transformation Officer, Dan Chasle, as well as Matthew Biboud-Lubeck, Amperity’s General Manager EMEA, as they discuss the challenges of building accurate customer profiles when data is scattered across multiple systems.

See how GenAI + graph algorithms enable AI agents to reason, learn, and uncover insights—beyond static data or simple retrieva

This session presents the knowledge graph as a dynamic reasoning engine, not just a static data repository. Learn how to deploy autonomous AI agents that intelligently navigate the relationships within your connected data to discover profound insights. Leveraging GenAI and graph algorithms, this agentic approach moves beyond simple retrieval to create a verifiable foundation for AI systems that can reason and learn.

In today’s world, the organizations that succeed are the ones that can pivot quickly, confidently, and without disruption. The power of choice is everything. Today organizations must be able to choosing which data to use, and systems to use, and how to adapt when priorities shift is now critical for survival.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) faced a high-stakes challenge: prepare for multi-million-pound bus franchise negotiations with clear, defensible evidence of network performance. Using FME, they transformed over 2.5 million real-time GPS bus pings into a scalable, grid-based value-scoring model that revealed exactly which routes and operators delivered the most value.

The result? Faster, in-house analysis without costly consultancy fees, stronger negotiating power backed by objective data, and a repeatable blueprint for data-driven ROI that is applicable across the UK public sector and beyond.

Join Safe Software and WYCA to discover how all-data, any-AI integration can turn raw, real-time data into actionable intelligence empowering organizations to make smarter decisions, faster.

As organisations adopt artificial intelligence and autonomous agents, they encounter new technical challenges when integrating and scaling these solutions across the enterprise. This session provides an engineer’s view on how to effectively scale agents in complex business environments.

The presentation will cover the key architectural decisions, integration techniques, and best practices needed to ensure that agent-based systems can perform reliably at scale. You’ll learn how to overcome common obstacles such as managing data, ensuring compatibility with existing systems, and monitoring performance. The session will also explore new tools and frameworks that support the deployment of agents on a large scale, as well as practical advice for engineering teams implementing these solutions.

Whether you’re planning your first agent deployment or looking to improve your current systems, this session will give you valuable technical insights and a roadmap for scaling intelligent agents in your organisation.