Raw Data By P3 Adaptive

Large language models aren’t magic. They’re pivot tables for words. That’s the real breakthrough — not a crystal ball, not a robot overlord, but a new way to roll up all the noise in your business into something you can actually use. And that’s why AI belongs in the middle layer. Just like BI gave you visibility across systems, AI is becoming the connective tissue for all the unstructured stuff that never fit neatly in a database. Sure, every product is rushing to bolt on “AI features,” but those sidebars and pop-ups can only see the data inside their own walls. The real power shows up when you wire AI across the mess — the emails, the docs, the meeting notes, the structured and unstructured side by side. That’s where pivot-table-for-words meets pivot-table-for-numbers, and suddenly you’re not staring at silos. You’re staring at the whole picture. Rob and Justin cut past the hype to show why AI isn’t the star of the show, it’s the glue in the middle. And that’s good news, because the middle is where business actually gets done. Hit play and hear why the future of AI is less wizardry, more wiring — and why that’s exactly what makes it work.

This isn’t another AI think-piece, it’s a full-on data brawl. Copilot is out here plagiarizing Rob’s pivot table crusade while the self-appointed nerd police try to lock down the definition of agentic AI. Meanwhile, thirty years of fantasy football become the unexpected proof that tuning beats buzzwords every single time. What starts as a slip from Copilot turns into a bigger story about how AI really works. Off-the-shelf tools can sound impressive, but they collapse into clichés when they’re not tuned to the person using them. The difference isn’t just in efficiency, it’s in credibility. Get it right, and AI amplifies your voice. Get it wrong, and you sound like everyone else mailing it in. Don’t settle for AI that sounds like everyone else. Listen in and hear what happens when tuned workflows collide with real-world stakes.

Pivot tables finally auto-refresh. Humanity wins, but our host Rob Collie is still annoyed. Why? Because he asked for it back in 2007 and got shot down. That little gripe kicks off a bigger conversation: what else in data is overdue for a shake-up? Copilot might be next. Forget filters. Forget dashboards. Rob put it to the test on his beer-league hockey stats and found himself asking questions faster than any report could keep up. It felt natural, almost too natural. Then came the twist. Copilot served up an answer that looked perfect… and was completely wrong. If it can fool the guy who built the model, what chance does anyone else have? Listen in for the laughs, the lessons, and the curveballs of a future where filters may finally be obsolete.

Every campaign has it: that shiny "more reach, lower cost" lever that looks like marketing gold but really just siphons your budget into digital quicksand. We pulled it. The metrics looked fantastic. And that's exactly how we knew we'd been had. In this episode, Rob breaks down a real-world lesson in false signals, phantom clicks, and why data discipline isn't just consultant-speak—it's your financial survival strategy. We're talking about the bots that sneak in through "partner sites," how they corrupt your retargeting, and the ripple effect that turns good data bad across your entire funnel. Here's the thing: The real damage isn't the wasted spend. It's what corrupted data does to your decision-making. When you're building your strategy on phantom signals, every "optimization" takes you further from real results. If you're protecting a budget or leading a team that depends on clean data to drive real business decisions, this episode cuts straight to what matters: spotting the traps before they drain your resources and rebuilding trust in the numbers that actually count.

AI is rewriting the rules of analytics. Copilot can pull answers straight from your semantic model and bypass the dashboard entirely. But for all the tech fireworks, the same old truth holds: communication is still the hardest part. Stakeholders don’t always know what they want, builders don’t always know how to translate it, and requirements docs have never fixed that gap. Copilot just puts the tension in sharper focus. Rob and Justin dig into why vanishing chat histories aren’t just inconvenient, they erase the most honest record of what stakeholders actually care about. Screenshots and Word docs are a band-aid, not a solution. Persistent, shareable conversations could change the way model developers and business users collaborate, but only if governance and security evolve fast enough to keep up. Along the way, they show why usage data from Copilot queries is miles ahead of click stats on a dashboard and why the story of your data has always hinged on the same thing: people understanding each other. Dashboards may have set the stage, but conversation is where the real action is. Listen now and see what happens when the chat itself becomes the deliverable.

Two hundred episodes in, and we're done with the warm-up! Episode 200 finds Rob flying solo and pulling zero punches on the question everyone's quietly asking: what's the future of data work? No anniversary nostalgia here, just uncomfortable truths about AI bootcamps at Starbucks, semantic models going naked, and why being "pretty good" at anything is about to get very complicated. If you think you know where this is all headed, think again. Rob spent yesterday turning a non-techie real estate agent into an AI power user, and what he saw exceeded anything from the early Power BI days. But here's what nobody's talking about: the invisible barriers, the shifting skill requirements, and why the middle ground might be disappearing faster than anyone realizes. The lines between data work and software work are blurring, structured versus unstructured data is becoming meaningless, and the comfortable assumptions about who does what are about to get stress-tested. Two hundred episodes of calling it straight, and this one tackles the questions that keep data professionals up at night. Some answers might surprise you. Others might make you uncomfortable. [But you'll know exactly where you stand when the dust settles]

Most of us have been in the trenches long enough to know when something's about to flip the script. And brother, we're standing at the edge of a cliff most data folks don't even see coming. Rob Collie thought he had Power BI figured out. Then Copilot did something impossible; it cracked a question that should've left it scratching its digital head. But it didn't just answer. It nailed it. That's what we're calling the Dobie Moment—when AI stops being a fancy calculator and starts being genuinely scary-smart. Here's the thing nobody's talking about, your semantic models aren't just sitting there anymore. They're waking up. And when Rob and Justin break down what happened in this episode, you'll see exactly why that should make you sweat a little. They're not here to blow smoke. They'll show you the magic, sure, but more importantly, they'll show you where the landmines are buried. Because when AI starts connecting dots you didn't even know existed, confidence and correctness become two very different animals. Bottom line: The future of data just knocked on your door. You can pretend you didn't hear it, or you can listen to this episode and actually be ready when your models have their own moment of reckoning. Your call. But don't say we didn't warn you.

AI looks unstoppable… until you hand it a hundred pages of meeting notes. Rob and Justin dig into why context windows and token limits quietly run the show. That “million-token” brag from Google? More like weighing the Titanic in bananas. From Shakespeare to SharePoint, this episode shows why AI remembers the Roman Empire better than your company history—and why that’s not a bad thing. Rob also introduces Griff, a digital colleague that fires off P3-flavored ideas like it’s had three espressos. It’s practical AI that’s actually fun to use. Hit play to find out where AI is brilliant, where it falls flat, and how to make it work for you without the hype. Also on this episode: Million Token Context Windows? Myth Busted—Limits & Fixes

Back in 2010, Tableau beat smarter tools with a better demo. No brain, all charm and the market loved it. Fast-forward to now: same playbook, new costume. The AI dashboard crowd is selling “natural language BI” with zero semantic model, zero memory, and a whole lot of LinkedIn swagger. In this episode, Rob and Justin revisit why Tableau’s empty-calorie approach won the first round, and how that same mistake is about to flood the AI + BI space all over again. Turns out, you can still sell snake oil if you call it GenAI. Rob breaks down how an elite MIT course managed to skip LLMs entirely, how a flashy Tableau blog post went viral for connecting a CSV, and why “AI-ready” vendors keep duct-taping chat interfaces onto raw SQL and hoping no one looks under the hood. But the real story? Microsoft is sitting on the most powerful data brain in the game, and if they land the front end, it’s game over. This isn’t just a history lesson. It’s a blueprint for seeing through the hype and betting on what actually works. If you’re building, buying, or betting on AI tools, listen in before you get dazzled by the demo. Also on this episode: Early Experiments in Tableau’s New MCP Service

Let’s say your business runs on sun, sweat, and schedule precision. You’ve got crews in the field, materials that don’t wait, and about 90 minutes to get it right before the product turns into a thousand-pound paperweight. That’s the world Joseph Graziano lives in. He’s the CFO of Quadrant Concrete and also the guy keeping the trucks moving, the forecasts dialed in, and the safety records spotless. Because in the mid-market, you don’t get extra people. You get extra resourceful. Joseph shares how he helped transform a boots-on-the-ground concrete business into a data-forward operation without fancy titles, inflated budgets, or a fleet of consultants. From field-collected data to real-time cashflow forecasting, he’s found the sweet spot where better reporting leads to smarter, calmer decisions. You’ll also hear why operational transparency isn’t just about ROI, it’s about reducing chaos, building trust, and creating a culture where everyone sees what matters. If you’re trying to lead your business through complexity without adding complexity, this episode can be your blueprint. Data doesn’t have to be fancy to be powerful. It just has to work. Listen now and see what it looks like when grit meets insight.