Summary  In this episode Preeti Somal, EVP of Engineering at Temporal, talks about the durable execution model and how it reshapes the way teams build reliable, stateful systems for data and AI. She explores Temporal’s code‑first programming model—workflows, activities, task queues, and replay—and how it eliminates hand‑rolled retry, checkpoint, and error‑handling scaffolding while letting data remain where it lives. Preeti shares real-world patterns for replacing DAG-first orchestration, integrating application and data teams through signals and Nexus for cross-boundary calls, and using Temporal to coordinate long-running, human-in-the-loop, and agentic AI workflows with full observability and auditability. Shee also discusses heuristics for choosing Temporal alongside (or instead of) traditional orchestrators, managing scale without moving large datasets, and lessons from running durable execution as a cloud service. 

Announcements  Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData teams everywhere face the same problem: they're forcing ML models, streaming data, and real-time processing through orchestration tools built for simple ETL. The result? Inflexible infrastructure that can't adapt to different workloads. That's why Cash App and Cisco rely on Prefect. Cash App's fraud detection team got what they needed - flexible compute options, isolated environments for custom packages, and seamless data exchange between workflows. Each model runs on the right infrastructure, whether that's high-memory machines or distributed compute. Orchestration is the foundation that determines whether your data team ships or struggles. ETL, ML model training, AI Engineering, Streaming - Prefect runs it all from ingestion to activation in one platform. Whoop and 1Password also trust Prefect for their data operations. If these industry leaders use Prefect for critical workflows, see what it can do for you at dataengineeringpodcast.com/prefect.Data migrations are brutal. They drag on for months—sometimes years—burning through resources and crushing team morale. Datafold's AI-powered Migration Agent changes all that. Their unique combination of AI code translation and automated data validation has helped companies complete migrations up to 10 times faster than manual approaches. And they're so confident in their solution, they'll actually guarantee your timeline in writing. Ready to turn your year-long migration into weeks? Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today for the details. Composable data infrastructure is great, until you spend all of your time gluing it together. Bruin is an open source framework, driven from the command line, that makes integration a breeze. Write Python and SQL to handle the business logic, and let Bruin handle the heavy lifting of data movement, lineage tracking, data quality monitoring, and governance enforcement. Bruin allows you to build end-to-end data workflows using AI, has connectors for hundreds of platforms, and helps data teams deliver faster. Teams that use Bruin need less engineering effort to process data and benefit from a fully integrated data platform. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/bruin today to get started. And for dbt Cloud customers, they'll give you $1,000 credit to migrate to Bruin Cloud.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Preeti Somal about how to incorporate durable execution and state management into AI application architectures Interview   IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what durable execution is and how it impacts system architecture?With the strong focus on state maintenance and high reliability, what are some of the most impactful ways that data teams are incorporating tools like Temporal into their work?One of the core primitives in Temporal is a "workflow". How does that compare to similar primitives in common data orchestration systems such as Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, etc.?  What are the heuristics that you recommend when deciding which tool to use for a given task, particularly in data/pipeline oriented projects? Even if a team is using a more data-focused orchestration engine, what are some of the ways that Temporal can be applied to handle the processing logic of the actual data?AI applications are also very dependent on reliable data to be effective in production contexts. What are some of the design patterns where durable execution can be integrated into RAG/agent applications?What are some of the conceptual hurdles that teams experience when they are starting to adopt Temporal or other durable execution frameworks?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen Temporal/durable execution used for data/AI services?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on Temporal?When is Temporal/durable execution the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of Temporal for data and AI systems? Contact Info   LinkedIn Parting Question   From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today? Closing Announcements   Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story. Links   TemporalDurable ExecutionFlinkMachine Learning EpochSpark StreamingAirflowDirected Acyclic Graph (DAG)Temporal NexusTensorZeroAI Engineering Podcast Episode The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA  

Summary In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast Omri Lifshitz (CTO) and Ido Bronstein (CEO) of Upriver talk about the growing gap between AI's demand for high-quality data and organizations' current data practices. They discuss why AI accelerates both the supply and demand sides of data, highlighting that the bottleneck lies in the "middle layer" of curation, semantics, and serving. Omri and Ido outline a three-part framework for making data usable by LLMs and agents: collect, curate, serve, and share challenges of scaling from POCs to production, including compounding error rates and reliability concerns. They also explore organizational shifts, patterns for managing context windows, pragmatic views on schema choices, and Upriver's approach to building autonomous data workflows using determinism and LLMs at the right boundaries. The conversation concludes with a look ahead to AI-first data platforms where engineers supervise business semantics while automation stitches technical details end-to-end.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData teams everywhere face the same problem: they're forcing ML models, streaming data, and real-time processing through orchestration tools built for simple ETL. The result? Inflexible infrastructure that can't adapt to different workloads. That's why Cash App and Cisco rely on Prefect. Cash App's fraud detection team got what they needed - flexible compute options, isolated environments for custom packages, and seamless data exchange between workflows. Each model runs on the right infrastructure, whether that's high-memory machines or distributed compute. Orchestration is the foundation that determines whether your data team ships or struggles. ETL, ML model training, AI Engineering, Streaming - Prefect runs it all from ingestion to activation in one platform. Whoop and 1Password also trust Prefect for their data operations. If these industry leaders use Prefect for critical workflows, see what it can do for you at dataengineeringpodcast.com/prefect.Data migrations are brutal. They drag on for months—sometimes years—burning through resources and crushing team morale. Datafold's AI-powered Migration Agent changes all that. Their unique combination of AI code translation and automated data validation has helped companies complete migrations up to 10 times faster than manual approaches. And they're so confident in their solution, they'll actually guarantee your timeline in writing. Ready to turn your year-long migration into weeks? Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today for the details.Composable data infrastructure is great, until you spend all of your time gluing it together. Bruin is an open source framework, driven from the command line, that makes integration a breeze. Write Python and SQL to handle the business logic, and let Bruin handle the heavy lifting of data movement, lineage tracking, data quality monitoring, and governance enforcement. Bruin allows you to build end-to-end data workflows using AI, has connectors for hundreds of platforms, and helps data teams deliver faster. Teams that use Bruin need less engineering effort to process data and benefit from a fully integrated data platform. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/bruin today to get started. And for dbt Cloud customers, they'll give you $1,000 credit to migrate to Bruin Cloud.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Omri Lifshitz and Ido Bronstein about the challenges of keeping up with the demand for data when supporting AI systemsInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?We're here to talk about "The Growing Gap Between Data & AI". From your perspective, what is this gap, and why do you think it's widening so rapidly right now?How does this gap relate to the founding story of Upriver? What problems were you and your co-founders experiencing that led you to build this?The core premise of new AI tools, from RAG pipelines to LLM agents, is that they are only as good as the data they're given. How does this "garbage in, garbage out" problem change when the "in" is not a static file but a complex, high-velocity, and constantly changing data pipeline?Upriver is described as an "intelligent agent system" and an "autonomous data engineer." This is a fascinating "AI to solve for AI" approach. Can you describe this agent-based architecture and how it specifically works to bridge that data-AI gap?Your website mentions a "Data Context Layer" that turns "tribal knowledge" into a "machine-usable mode." This sounds critical for AI. How do you capture that context, and how does it make data "AI-ready" in a way that a traditional data catalog or quality tool doesn't?What are the most innovative or unexpected ways you've seen companies trying to make their data "AI-ready"? And where are the biggest points of failure you observe?What has been the most challenging or unexpected lesson you've learned while building an AI system (Upriver) that is designed to fix the data foundation for other AI systems?When is an autonomous, agent-based approach not the right solution for a team's data quality problems? What organizational or technical maturity is required to even start closing this data-AI gap?What do you have planned for the future of Upriver? And looking more broadly, how do you see this gap between data and AI evolving over the next few years?Contact Info Ido - LinkedInOmri - LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links UpriverRAG == Retrieval Augmented GenerationAI Engineering Podcast EpisodeAI AgentContext WindowModel Finetuning)The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary In this episode of the AI Engineering Podcast Mark Brooker, VP and Distinguished Engineer at AWS, talks about how agentic workflows are transforming database usage and infrastructure design. He discusses the evolving role of data in AI systems, from traditional models to more modern approaches like vectors, RAG, and relational databases. Mark explains why agents require serverless, elastic, and operationally simple databases, and how AWS solutions like Aurora and DSQL address these needs with features such as rapid provisioning, automated patching, geodistribution, and spiky usage. The conversation covers topics including tool calling, improved model capabilities, state in agents versus stateless LLM calls, and the role of Lambda and AgentCore for long-running, session-isolated agents. Mark also touches on the shift from local MCP tools to secure, remote endpoints, the rise of object storage as a durable backplane, and the need for better identity and authorization models. The episode highlights real-world patterns like agent-driven SQL fuzzing and plan analysis, while identifying gaps in simplifying data access, hardening ops for autonomous systems, and evolving serverless database ergonomics to keep pace with agentic development.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData teams everywhere face the same problem: they're forcing ML models, streaming data, and real-time processing through orchestration tools built for simple ETL. The result? Inflexible infrastructure that can't adapt to different workloads. That's why Cash App and Cisco rely on Prefect. Cash App's fraud detection team got what they needed - flexible compute options, isolated environments for custom packages, and seamless data exchange between workflows. Each model runs on the right infrastructure, whether that's high-memory machines or distributed compute. Orchestration is the foundation that determines whether your data team ships or struggles. ETL, ML model training, AI Engineering, Streaming - Prefect runs it all from ingestion to activation in one platform. Whoop and 1Password also trust Prefect for their data operations. If these industry leaders use Prefect for critical workflows, see what it can do for you at dataengineeringpodcast.com/prefect.Data migrations are brutal. They drag on for months—sometimes years—burning through resources and crushing team morale. Datafold's AI-powered Migration Agent changes all that. Their unique combination of AI code translation and automated data validation has helped companies complete migrations up to 10 times faster than manual approaches. And they're so confident in their solution, they'll actually guarantee your timeline in writing. Ready to turn your year-long migration into weeks? Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today for the details.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Marc Brooker about the impact of agentic workflows on database usage patterns and how they change the architectural requirements for databasesInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you describe what the role of the database is in agentic workflows?There are numerous types of databases, with relational being the most prevalent. How does the type and purpose of an agent inform the type of database that should be used?Anecdotally I have heard about how agentic workloads have become the predominant "customers" of services like Neon and Fly.io. How would you characterize the different patterns of scale for agentic AI applications? (e.g. proliferation of agents, monolithic agents, multi-agent, etc.)What are some of the most significant impacts on workload and access patterns for data storage and retrieval that agents introduce?What are the categorical differences in that behavior as compared to programmatic/automated systems?You have spent a substantial amount of time on Lambda at AWS. Given that LLMs are effectively stateless, how does the added ephemerality of serverless functions impact design and performance considerations around having to "re-hydrate" context when interacting with agents?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen serverless and database systems used for agentic workloads?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on technologies that are supporting agentic applications?Contact Info BlogLinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links AWS Aurora DSQLAWS LambdaThree Tier ArchitectureVector DatabaseGraph DatabaseRelational DatabaseVector EmbeddingRAG == Retrieval Augmented GenerationAI Engineering Podcast EpisodeGraphRAGAI Engineering Podcast EpisodeLLM Tool CallingMCP == Model Context ProtocolA2A == Agent 2 Agent ProtocolAWS Bedrock AgentCoreStrandsLangChainKiroThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast Kacper Łukawski from Qdrant about integrating MCP servers with vector databases to process unstructured data. Kacper shares his experience in data engineering, from building big data pipelines in the automotive industry to leveraging large language models (LLMs) for transforming unstructured datasets into valuable assets. He discusses the challenges of building data pipelines for unstructured data and how vector databases facilitate semantic search and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications. Kacper delves into the intricacies of vector storage and search, including metadata and contextual elements, and explores the evolution of vector engines beyond RAG to applications like semantic search and anomaly detection. The conversation covers the role of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in simplifying data integration and retrieval processes, highlighting the need for experimentation and evaluation when adopting LLMs, and offering practical advice on optimizing vector search costs and fine-tuning embedding models for improved search quality.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData migrations are brutal. They drag on for months—sometimes years—burning through resources and crushing team morale. Datafold's AI-powered Migration Agent changes all that. Their unique combination of AI code translation and automated data validation has helped companies complete migrations up to 10 times faster than manual approaches. And they're so confident in their solution, they'll actually guarantee your timeline in writing. Ready to turn your year-long migration into weeks? Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today for the details.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Kacper Łukawski about how MCP servers can be paired with vector databases to streamline processing of unstructured dataInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?LLMs are enabling the derivation of useful data assets from unstructured sources. What are the challenges that teams face in building the pipelines to support that work?How has the role of vector engines grown or evolved in the past ~2 years as LLMs have gained broader adoption?Beyond its role as a store of context for agents, RAG, etc. what other applications are common for vector databaes?In the ecosystem of vector engines, what are the distinctive elements of Qdrant?How has the MCP specification simplified the work of processing unstructured data?Can you describe the toolchain and workflow involved in building a data pipeline that leverages an MCP for generating embeddings?helping data engineers gain confidence in non-deterministic workflowsbringing application/ML/data teams into collaboration for determining the impact of e.g. chunking strategies, embedding model selection, etc.What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen MCP and Qdrant used?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on vector use cases?When is MCP and/or Qdrant the wrong choice?What do you have planned for the future of MCP with Qdrant?Contact Info LinkedInTwitter/XPersonal websiteParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links QdrantKafkaApache OoziNamed Entity RecognitionGraphRAGpgvectorElasticsearchApache LuceneOpenSearchBM25Semantic SearchMCP == Model Context ProtocolAnthropic Contextualized ChunkingCohereThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast Bartosz Mikulski talks about preparing data for AI applications. Bartosz shares his journey from data engineering to MLOps and emphasizes the importance of data testing over software development in AI contexts. He discusses the types of data assets required for AI applications, including extensive test datasets, especially in generative AI, and explains the differences in data requirements for various AI application styles. The conversation also explores the skills data engineers need to transition into AI, such as familiarity with vector databases and new data modeling strategies, and highlights the challenges of evolving AI applications, including frequent reprocessing of data when changing chunking strategies or embedding models.

Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData migrations are brutal. They drag on for months—sometimes years—burning through resources and crushing team morale. Datafold's AI-powered Migration Agent changes all that. Their unique combination of AI code translation and automated data validation has helped companies complete migrations up to 10 times faster than manual approaches. And they're so confident in their solution, they'll actually guarantee your timeline in writing. Ready to turn your year-long migration into weeks? Visit dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today for the details. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Bartosz Mikulski about how to prepare data for use in AI applicationsInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you start by outlining some of the main categories of data assets that are needed for AI applications?How does the nature of the application change those requirements? (e.g. RAG app vs. agent, etc.)How do the different assets map to the stages of the application lifecycle?What are some of the common roles and divisions of responsibility that you see in the construction and operation of a "typical" AI application?For data engineers who are used to data warehousing/BI, what are the skills that map to AI apps?What are some of the data modeling patterns that are needed to support AI apps?chunking strategies metadata managementWhat are the new categories of data that data engineers need to manage in the context of AI applications?agent memory generation/evolution conversation history managementdata collection for fine tuningWhat are some of the notable evolutions in the space of AI applications and their patterns that have happened in the past ~1-2 years that relate to the responsibilities of data engineers?What are some of the skills gaps that teams should be aware of and identify training opportunities for?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen data teams address the needs of AI applications?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working on AI applications and their reliance on data?What are some of the emerging trends that you are paying particular attention to?Contact Info WebsiteLinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your story.Links SparkRayChunking StrategiesHypothetical document embeddingsModel Fine TuningPrompt CompressionThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA

Summary Generative AI has rapidly gained adoption for numerous use cases. To support those applications, organizational data platforms need to add new features and data teams have increased responsibility. In this episode Lior Gavish, co-founder of Monte Carlo, discusses the various ways that data teams are evolving to support AI powered features and how they are incorporating AI into their work. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data managementData lakes are notoriously complex. For data engineers who battle to build and scale high quality data workflows on the data lake, Starburst is an end-to-end data lakehouse platform built on Trino, the query engine Apache Iceberg was designed for, with complete support for all table formats including Apache Iceberg, Hive, and Delta Lake. Trusted by teams of all sizes, including Comcast and Doordash. Want to see Starburst in action? Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/starburst and get $500 in credits to try Starburst Galaxy today, the easiest and fastest way to get started using Trino.Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Lior Gavish about the impact of AI on data engineersInterview IntroductionHow did you get involved in the area of data management?Can you start by clarifying what we are discussing when we say "AI"?Previous generations of machine learning (e.g. deep learning, reinforcement learning, etc.) required new features in the data platform. What new demands is the current generation of AI introducing?Generative AI also has the potential to be incorporated in the creation/execution of data pipelines. What are the risk/reward tradeoffs that you have seen in practice?What are the areas where LLMs have proven useful/effective in data engineering?Vector embeddings have rapidly become a ubiquitous data format as a result of the growth in retrieval augmented generation (RAG) for AI applications. What are the end-to-end operational requirements to support this use case effectively?As with all data, the reliability and quality of the vectors will impact the viability of the AI application. What are the different failure modes/quality metrics/error conditions that they are subject to?As much as vectors, vector databases, RAG, etc. seem exotic and new, it is all ultimately shades of the same work that we have been doing for years. What are the areas of overlap in the work required for running the current generation of AI, and what are the areas where it diverges?What new skills do data teams need to acquire to be effective in supporting AI applications?What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen AI impact data engineering teams?What are the most interesting, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned while working with the current generation of AI?When is AI the wrong choice?What are your predictions for the future impact of AI on data engineering teams?Contact Info LinkedInParting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today?Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don't forget to check out our other shows. Podcast.init covers the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. The AI Engineering Podcast is your guide to the fast-moving world of building AI systems.Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.If you've learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email [email protected] with your Links Monte CarloPodcast EpisodeNLP == Natural Language ProcessingLarge Language ModelsGenerative AIMLOpsML EngineerFeature StoreRetrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)LangchainThe intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA