Intro

If there’s one word to describe the past year in geospatial, it’s change.

In this solo episode, I take you behind the scenes of what I’ve been seeing, hearing, and working on across geospatial, cloud, and AI over the past year, and how those shifts are shaping what actually matters heading into 2026 .

I talk about:

- Where AI is real vs overhyped in geospatial workflows
- Why cloud-native geospatial has quietly crossed into real production systems
- How formats like GeoParquet, Iceberg, and modern compute engines are changing where spatial data lives
- Why architecture and systems thinking are becoming the most valuable skills in the industry
- The rise of power skills (not “soft skills”) across roles like data engineering, product, architecture, and leadership
- What roles are emerging, and how they actually work together in modern spatial teams

This isn’t a predictions episode built on hype. It’s a grounded look at what changed, what didn’t, and what skills and mindsets will matter most as geospatial continues to integrate with the broader data and AI ecosystem.

If you’re a GIS professional, data engineer, architect, product manager, or leader trying to understand how spatial fits into modern systems, this episode will help you frame what’s next, and how to prepare for it.

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