Production challenges: AI needs better data than analytics

Summary
In this episode of the Data Engineering Podcast Ariel Pohoryles, head of product marketing for Boomi's data management offerings, talks about a recent survey of 300 data leaders on how organizations are investing in data to scale AI. He shares a paradox uncovered in the research: while 77% of leaders trust the data feeding their AI systems, only 50% trust their organization's data overall. Ariel explains why truly productionizing AI demands broader, continuously refreshed data with stronger automation and governance, and highlights the challenges posed by unstructured data and vector stores. The conversation covers the need to shift from manual reviews to automated pipelines, the resurgence of metadata and master data management, and the importance of guardrails, traceability, and agent governance. Ariel also predicts a growing convergence between data teams and application integration teams and advises leaders to focus on high-value use cases, aggressive pipeline automation, and cataloging and governing the coming sprawl of AI agents, all while using AI to accelerate data engineering itself.

Announcements

• Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management
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• Your host is Tobias Macey and today I'm interviewing Ariel Pohoryles about data management investments that organizations are making to enable them to scale AI implementations

Interview

• Introduction
• How did you get involved in the area of data management?
• Can you start by describing the motivation and scope of your recent survey on data management investments for AI across your respondents?
  • What are the key takeaways that were most significant to you?
• The survey reveals a fascinating paradox: 77% of leaders trust the data used by their AI systems, yet only half trust their organization's overall data quality. For our data engineering audience, what does this suggest about how companies are currently sourcing data for AI? 
  • Does it imply they are using narrow, manually-curated "golden datasets," and what are the technical challenges and risks of that approach as they try to scale?
• The report highlights a heavy reliance on manual data quality processes, with one expert noting companies feel it's "not reliable to fully automate validation" for external or customer data. At the same time, maturity in "Automated tools for data integration and cleansing" is low, at only 42%. What specific technical hurdles or organizational inertia are preventing teams from adopting more automation in their data quality and integration pipelines?
• There was a significant point made that with generative AI, "biases can scale much faster," making automated governance essential. From a data engineering perspective, how does the data management strategy need to evolve to support generative AI versus traditional ML models? 
  • What new types of data quality checks, lineage tracking, or monitoring for feedback loops are required when the model itself is generating new content based on its own outputs?
• The report champions a "centralized data management platform" as the "connective tissue" for reliable AI. How do you see the scale and data maturity impacting the realities of that effort?
  • How do architectural patterns in the shape of cloud warehouses, lakehouses, data mesh, data products, etc. factor into that need for centralized/unified platforms?
• A surprising finding was that a third of respondents have not fully grasped the risk of significant inaccuracies in their AI models if they fail to prioritize data management. In your experience, what are the biggest blind spots for data and analytics leaders?
• Looking at the maturity charts, companies rate themselves highly on "Developing a data management strategy" (65%) but lag significantly in areas like "Automated tools for data integration and cleansing" (42%) and "Conducting bias-detection audits" (24%). If you were advising a data engineering team lead based on these findings, what would you tell them to prioritize in the next 6-12 months to bridge the gap between strategy and a truly scalable, trustworthy data foundation for AI?
• The report states that 83% of companies expect to integrate more data sources for their AI in the next year. For a data engineer on the ground, what is the most important capability they need to build into their platform to handle this influx?
• What are the most interesting, innovative, or unexpected ways that you have seen teams addressing the new and accelerated data needs for AI applications?
• What are some of the noteworthy trends or predictions that you have for the near-term future of the impact that AI is having or will have on data teams and 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.
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Links

• Boomi
  • Data Management
  • Integration & Automation Demo
  • Agentstudio
  • Data Connector Agent Webinar
• Survey Results
• Data Governance
• Shadow IT
  • Podcast Episode

The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA