Aviation Industry Faces Data Bottleneck Despite Record Tech Investment, New Report Finds
The aviation sector poured a record $50.8 billion into technology in 2025, yet fragmented data systems are curbing the return on that spend. Airlines and airports both earmarked billions—$36 billion and $14.8 billion respectively—toward digital tools, with data‑driven decision‑making now a top priority for over 80% of operators. However, nearly half of airlines still cite data integration as their biggest obstacle, limiting AI adoption and real‑time operational gains. The report warns that without seamless data flow, the industry’s digital transformation will fall short of its potential.
Vibhor Kumar: AI-Ready PostgreSQL 18 Is Out: Why AI Applications Win or Lose at the Seams
Vibhor Kumar and Marc Linster released “AI‑Ready PostgreSQL 18,” a field guide showing how to store embeddings in PostgreSQL with pgvector and combine them with SQL constraints. The book demonstrates a hybrid pattern where semantic retrieval and relational truth run...
Starburst Adds AI Front End in a Bid to Make Conventional Business Intelligence Dashboards Obsolete
Starburst Data launched AI Data Assistant, a natural‑language front end that lets business users query enterprise data without building traditional dashboards. The tool, named Aida, runs on Starburst’s Trino‑based platform, accessing data in place across clouds, lakes, and warehouses while...
Qlik and ServiceNow Partner to Bring Trusted Enterprise Context Into AI-Powered Workflows
Qlik and ServiceNow announced a partnership to embed trusted enterprise context into ServiceNow workflows and AI agents. New Qlik metadata collectors for the ServiceNow Data Catalog improve data lineage, governance, and discovery. The Qlik Analytics Engine and AI will feed...
Make Your Azure Data Platform AI-Ready
Enterprises accelerating AI on Microsoft Azure are finding that the real obstacle is not model sophistication but fragmented data foundations. A unified, well‑governed data layer is essential for moving AI from experimentation to production at scale. Azure’s suite—spanning Synapse, Data...
From AI Pilots to Production Results with Governed Execution
Enterprises pour billions into AI pilots but most fail to reach production because fragmented data, siloed teams, and missing operating models block scale. The core issue is not the lack of models but the absence of a unified, governed data...
Amtrak OIG: Agency Needs Better Data Governance to Achieve State of Good Repair –– News and Commentary
The Amtrak Office of Inspector General released a report highlighting serious data‑governance gaps that impede the railroad’s State of Good Repair (SOGR) program. Amtrak estimates a $47 billion backlog of infrastructure assets that fall short of safety and performance standards, with...
Fintel Alliance Starts Planning Its Next-Gen Analytics Hub
Australia’s Fintel Alliance – a coalition of banks, regulators, police and gambling operators – is redesigning its collaborative analytics hub (CAH) to handle larger, real‑time financial‑crime monitoring. The existing hub, first deployed in 2024, proved its concept by uncovering hidden...
It’s Not Governance Slowing Down Enterprise AI — It’s the Lack of It, Says Qlik Executive
Enterprises racing to deploy AI are hitting a wall, not from model limitations but from insufficient data governance, Qlik’s chief strategy officer James Fisher said. A Qlik‑Enterprise Technology Research study found data quality, availability and governance are the top blockers...
From First Principles: The Ideas That Built Snowflake — and What Comes Next
Snowflake’s 2016 SIGMOD paper earned the 2026 Test‑of‑Time Award, highlighting the company’s early vision of a cloud‑native data platform. The paper defined three core principles—unifying all data, leveraging cloud elasticity, and simplifying operations—that guided Snowflake’s architecture. Decoupling compute from storage...
Teradata Launches Analyst Agent on Microsoft Marketplace for AI-Assisted Business Decision-Making
Teradata has released its enterprise‑grade Analyst Agent on Microsoft Marketplace, enabling AI‑assisted conversational analytics within Azure environments. The agent lets business and data analysts pose natural‑language questions, automatically generating complex SQL queries and visualizations without coding. Central to the offering...
Data Manipulation Techniques in esProc SPL: A Complete Guide
The article provides a comprehensive guide to data manipulation in esProc SPL, positioning it as a powerful alternative to Python for cleaning, reshaping, and merging datasets. It walks through handling missing values, outlier detection with Z‑score and IQR, duplicate removal,...
Complying with Smart Energy Data Governance
Smart energy data is becoming a cornerstone for the UK’s net‑zero agenda, enabling precise billing, EV charging optimisation, and renewable grid coordination. As the data moves into real‑estate and finance sectors, governance challenges have intensified. ElectraLink, a seasoned data controller,...
SE Qld Councils to Collaborate on Common Data, ID Foundations
South East Queensland’s 12 mayors released a collaborative digital plan that sets a roadmap for foundational digital infrastructure by 2035. The immediate focus is on building a common data environment, a regional digital identity system, and upgraded connectivity to enable...
Boost Your Spark Jobs: How Photon Accelerates Apache Spark Performance
Databricks introduced Photon, a native C++ engine that replaces Spark’s JVM‑based runtime. By using vectorized, columnar processing and zero‑copy memory management, Photon delivers 3–7× faster query execution and 30–50% lower memory consumption. The engine integrates as a shared library, letting...
Designing AI-Assisted Integration Pipelines for Enterprise SaaS
AI‑assisted integration pipelines are emerging as a solution for connecting enterprise SaaS platforms such as Workday to downstream systems. By automating schema alignment through rule‑based logic, machine‑learning models, and large language models, these pipelines dramatically reduce manual mapping and maintenance....
Google Cloud Introduces QueryData to Help AI Agents Create Reliable Database Queries
Google Cloud unveiled QueryData, a tool that converts natural‑language prompts into database queries with claimed near‑100% accuracy. The service relies on a pre‑defined “context” that encodes schema details and deterministic instructions, which are refined using the Context Engineering Assistant in...
Emphasizing Reusability When Creating Data Products with Quest Software
The DBTA webinar underscored that data product reusability is essential for AI‑ready enterprises. Experts warned that building one‑off datasets wastes millions, delays initiatives, and erodes data trust. Quest’s Ryan Crochet defined a reusable data product as valuable, trustworthy, discoverable, accessible,...
Qlik CEO: ‘Trusted Data Foundation’ For AI Is The Theme At This Week’s Connect Event
Qlik CEO Mike Capone told CRN that a trusted data foundation is essential for successful AI, especially agentic AI that automates decisions. He highlighted that 86% of AI projects miss ROI because companies skip end‑to‑end data preparation. Qlik has invested...
AI in Business Intelligence: How to Manage It Effectively
Artificial intelligence is reshaping business intelligence by extending analytics beyond descriptive reporting to predictive and prescriptive insights. Generative and agentic AI tools now automate data preparation, enable real‑time analysis, and allow natural‑language queries, making BI more accessible to non‑technical users....
A Legal Imperative for Strengthening Data Governance, Protecting Personal Information
South African companies face mounting pressure from the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) to tighten data governance as digital transformation creates fragmented record‑keeping environments. Mohammed Vachiat of Konica Minolta South Africa argues that integrating digital record systems is now...
Practical Steps to Prepare Enterprise Data for Generative AI: Gartner
Enterprises are hitting data‑quality and accessibility roadblocks as they scale generative AI, with over 25% of AI leaders citing these issues as top barriers. Gartner’s 2026 survey shows that firms using automated data‑readiness assessments are 2.3 times more likely to achieve...
Why Data Quality Matters when Working with Data at Scale
Data quality is often relegated to a post‑deployment cleanup, leading to costly fixes and eroded trust when pipelines drift from their original contracts. The article outlines how typical data projects move from cross‑functional planning to staging validation, yet assume the...
Swiss Stock Exchange SIX, Snowflake Partner to Simplify Access to Financial Data
Switzerland’s SIX stock exchange has teamed up with Snowflake to deliver its regulatory, reference and pricing data directly within Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud. The integration uses Snowflake’s zero‑copy data sharing, letting clients query SIX data without moving or duplicating it....
Snowflake Manager Explains the 'Spider-Man' Theory of AI Agent Data Access
Snowflake says the biggest hurdle for AI agents is clean, accessible, governed data, not model quality. To address this, the company is building an interoperable stack around the Apache Iceberg open table format, including Iceberg REST and Polaris‑based governance. The...
Why Data Governance Is the Secret to AI Agent Success
The article warns that AI agents can magnify weak DevOps and data‑governance practices, turning minor flaws into large‑scale risks. While 70% of IT leaders believe strong DevOps aids AI adoption, only 39% have automated audit trails, exposing a governance gap....
Schema Evolution in Delta Lake: Designing Pipelines That Never Break
Schema drift—unexpected column additions or type changes—frequently breaks Spark pipelines. Delta Lake mitigates this risk with two complementary features: schema enforcement, which rejects mismatched writes, and schema evolution, which can automatically merge new columns when explicitly enabled. Each schema change...
SVT Robotics Launches ‘Softbot Intelligence’ to Power AI with Real-Time Automation Data
SVT Robotics unveiled Softbot Intelligence, a platform that captures and contextualizes real‑time execution data from robotics, software, and enterprise systems. By correlating events with millisecond precision, the solution creates a high‑fidelity data backbone that AI can consume for accurate predictions...
Infometry Launches INFOFISCUS Conversa for macOS to Interact with Enterprise AI Analytics Using Natural Language
Infometry has released a native macOS version of its INFOFISCUS Conversa platform, letting executives ask plain‑English questions and receive AI‑generated insights without writing SQL or consulting dashboards. The app translates natural language into optimized queries for cloud warehouses such as...
Dune Analytics Adds Support for Datashare and Tempo Blockchain
Dune Analytics unveiled a fully integrated dbt connector that streams transformed blockchain data directly into Snowflake or BigQuery, eliminating the need for separate ETL pipelines. The platform now covers more than 130 blockchains through its Datashare library, offering ready‑made tables...
Data Integration: A Guide to Types, Tools, and Use Cases
Data integration consolidates disparate sources into a single, reliable view, moving data through identification, ingestion, transformation, loading, QA, and governance. The guide outlines common methods—ETL, ELT, streaming, API‑based, iPaaS, and CDC—and highlights tools like Zapier, Fivetran, and Azure Data Factory....
How Agentic Analytics Is Shaping Decision-Making Within Enterprises
Enterprises are moving beyond static dashboards to Agentic Analytics, an AI‑driven approach that monitors, interprets, and acts on real‑time data without human prompts. By embedding autonomous agents into finance, supply‑chain, and sales workflows, companies can flag risks, predict outcomes, and...
Minor Hotels Unveils Plans for Global Data and AI Platform
Minor Hotels announced a new global data and AI platform built with Google Cloud, Salesforce, OneTrust and Deloitte. The platform will unify guest data across its 63‑country footprint, enabling real‑time personalization and AI‑driven service. Designed from scratch, it leverages generative...
New Jersey Uses Data to Improve Population Health
New Jersey’s Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) project, created by statute in 2016, now links more than 90 million person‑level health and administrative records. The initiative, funded by the state Department of Health, breaks down data silos across agencies to support...
Minor Hotels Builds AI Stack From Scratch To Improve Personalization
Minor Hotels is constructing a brand‑new global AI and data platform to connect guest information across its portfolio of more than 640 hotels and 12 brands. By building the stack from the ground up, the company sidesteps the legacy‑system bottlenecks...
Cloudera Supports Its Hybrid Data Platform with Latest Enhancements
Cloudera unveiled a suite of enhancements to its hybrid data and AI platform, extending support through 2032 and promising a unified experience across cloud and on‑premises environments. The upgrades focus on operational stability, simultaneous updates for hybrid estates, and new...
The Infrastructure AI Needs: Why MDM Must Become a System of Trust
Enterprises are hitting a wall on AI not because models are flawed but because their data infrastructure remains fragmented and reconciled after the fact. Syncari argues that a continuously mastered, real‑time control plane—what it calls Agentic MDM—provides the trusted data...
Data Governance Is Top Barrier To MSP AI Adoption: Survey
A new AvePoint‑Omdia survey of 333 MSP executives finds data governance and compliance are the biggest obstacles to AI adoption, with 51% naming it the top barrier. The AI services market is projected to reach $276 billion by 2030, creating a...
I Asked 5 Data Leaders About How They Use AI to Automate - and End Integration Nightmares
Data leaders across industries are turning to generative AI and automation to tame complex data‑integration projects. Thomson Reuters is piloting an internal AI tool for M&A due diligence, while Create Music Group runs more than 600 pipelines with Astronomer’s Astro...
The Diverse Responsibilities of a Principal Software Engineer
Liberty IT’s principal software engineer Sarah Whelan leads data pipeline enablement and experimentation, delivering reliable datasets for product and analytics teams. Her day blends technical design—creating reusable patterns, observability tools, and testing frameworks—with cross‑functional collaboration and mentorship. Whelan also co‑chairs...
Unstructured Data Is Piling up as AI Risks Rise
A new Thales report, based on a survey of 210 IT and security leaders, finds that more than half of enterprises lack full visibility into their unstructured data estates, and 68% say most of that data remains unprotected. Only 9%...
Agentic AI Will Fail without a Stronger Data Backbone
Enterprises are rapidly moving from experimenting with AI agents to scaling agentic AI, with 23% already deploying agents in at least one function. However, many organizations still rely on legacy, fragmented data stacks that cannot meet the low‑latency, high‑throughput demands...
Nasuni CEO On Expanding Cloud-Native Unstructured Data Platform For AI
Nasuni, a long‑time leader in cloud‑native global file systems, announced two AI‑focused offerings—AI Activate and Active Everywhere—aimed at giving enterprise AI applications secure, permission‑aware access to unstructured data. CEO Sam King framed the move as a natural evolution from the...
Video Forum: Natalie Ryan, The Emerson Group
Natalie Ryan, vice president of data strategy, insights and analytics at Emerson Group, highlighted the critical role of timely, actionable information for retailers and their CPG partners. She examined current shopper trends, noting how AI is reshaping demand forecasting and...
ACM Prize in Computing Honors Matei Zaharia for Foundational Contributions to Data and Machine Learning Systems
The ACM announced Matei Zahara as the 2026 recipient of the ACM Prize in Computing, recognizing his pioneering work on distributed data systems that power large‑scale machine learning and AI. The $250,000 award, funded by Infosys, highlights his creation of...
StreamNative Unveils New Architectural Paradigm Uniting Streaming and Lakehouses
StreamNative, the company behind Apache Pulsar, announced Lakestream, a new architecture that fuses streaming with lakehouse storage, and launched Ursa For Kafka (UFK) in limited public preview. Lakestream collapses the traditional divide by storing Kafka topics as Iceberg or Delta Lake tables,...
China’s National Data Administration Issues Draft Guidelines for Data Property Registration (Trial) for Public Comment
On April 3 2026 China’s National Data Administration released draft guidelines for data property registration, inviting public comment until April 19. The proposal creates a unified national system where data ownership certificates can be recorded as intangible assets on corporate balance sheets or...
Army Operations Center Is Trying to Solve Battlefield Data Problems in Real Time
The U.S. Army launched the Army Data Operations Center (ADOC) on April 3 to act as a rapid‑response help desk for battlefield data challenges. A small team of civilian and soldier engineers has already fielded seven deconfliction requests from training units...
Amazon S3 Files Gives AI Agents a Native File System Workspace, Ending the Object-File Split that Breaks Multi-Agent Pipelines
Amazon announced S3 Files, a service that mounts any S3 bucket directly into an agent’s local environment using Elastic File System technology. The solution provides true file‑system semantics while keeping S3 as the system of record, eliminating the need for...
Bridging the Hybrid Data Gap with ETL Pipelines: A Strategic Approach to Legacy and Cloud Migration
Enterprises operating in hybrid environments face data silos, inconsistent formats, security gaps and costly manual transfers. The article proposes a hybrid data layer powered by automated ETL pipelines as the strategic bridge between on‑premise legacy systems and cloud applications. By...