The Analytics Engineering Podcast AI and the data lake (w/ Lauren Anderson)
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Jan 11, 2026 In this discussion, Lauren Anderson, Senior Director for Okta's Enterprise Data Platform, shares her insights from a remarkable career in analytics. She explores the intersection of AI agents and the open data lake, advocating for central governance and a shared semantic layer. Lauren highlights the evolving roles of analytics engineers and data engineers as AI begins to automate more analytical tasks. She proposes implementing a centralized governance control plane to manage the complexities and security issues arising from these advancements.
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From Broken Access DB To Repeatable SQL
- Lauren recounts inheriting an Access database for compensation that broke and forced her to rebuild the pipeline.
- She documented SQL thoroughly and replaced the brittle system with repeatable, maintainable queries.
Accountability Trumps Fancy Tools
- Early-career success came from accountability and willingness to discard broken tools and improve processes.
- Those traits still matter, but tooling and use-cases for data teams have shifted since then.
Platform Owners Run The Full Data Lifecycle
- Okta's enterprise data platform covers ingestion, transformation, and delivery for company-wide analytics.
- The central team supports many business units while enabling federated teams to own their analytics.