265: From Anxiety to Advantage: Navigating Data’s AI Revolution with Barry McCardel of Hex

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Oct 8, 2025

Barry McCardel, CEO and co-founder of Hex, shares insights on the transformative power of AI on data teams. He discusses how AI can cause anxiety yet foster excitement among professionals, emphasizing the need for adaptability. Barry explains Hex's shift to integrate AI across teams, enhancing workflows and redefining roles. He highlights the increasing demand for data insights and explores the potential for AI to increase team impact. The conversation touches on industry consolidation trends and future directions in the data landscape.

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INSIGHT

Change Causes Real Anxiety

Rapid change creates uncertainty which often becomes anxiety for data professionals.
Barry McCardel says acknowledging that feeling is the first step to adapting productively.

ADVICE

Treat Your Team As An R&D Lab

Lean into AI tools and treat your data team as an R&D lab to stay relevant.
Barry McCardel tells teams to embrace change and reinvent workflows instead of resisting them.

INSIGHT

Data Work Beyond SQL

Strong data professionals do much more than write SQL; they solve problems and provide insight.
Barry argues AI frees people from boilerplate to focus on higher-impact analytical work.

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This week on The Data Stack Show, Barry McCardel, CEO and Co-Founder of Hex, joins Eric Dodds and John Wessel to discuss the transformative impact of AI on data teams and the broader data industry. The conversation explores how AI is reshaping workflows, team structures, and the very definition of data roles, while also addressing the anxieties and opportunities that come with rapid change. Barry shares Hex’s journey from having a dedicated AI team to fully integrating AI across the product, and offers insights on industry consolidation, the infinite demand for data insights, and the importance of embracing change. Key takeaways include the need for data professionals to adapt and focus on problem-solving, the growing value of context and curation, the competitive advantage for organizations that leverage AI-driven tools and foster a culture of innovation, and so much more.

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

Welcoming Back Barry to The Show (1:07)
Discussing Change, Uncertainty, And Anxiety In Data Roles (3:13)
Exploring Excitement And Opportunity In AI Adoption (6:20)
Redefining Data Roles And The Infinite Demand For Insight (9:37)
The Impact Of AI On Data Workflows And Team Mindset (12:52)
Evolving Team Structures And The End Of The Magic Team (16:49)
Integrating AI Into Product Development At Hex (20:44)
Comparing Industry Approaches To AI Features (24:56)
How AI Changes Daily Workflows For Data Teams (28:52)
The Virtuous Cycle Of Context, Curation, And Self-Serve (32:39)
Managing Context And Evaluating AI Agent Performance (36:52)
The Expanding Role Of Data Professionals In The AI Era (40:45)
Industry Consolidation And The Modern Data Stack (44:32)
Lessons From Acquisitions And Platform Shifts (48:18)
Key Takeaways And Looking Ahead To Future Episodes (52:16)

The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, customer data infrastructure that enables you to deliver real-time customer event data everywhere it’s needed to power smarter decisions and better customer experiences. Each week, we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

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