Data Architect - thoughts from my first Data + AI Summit

Finally had some time to gather my thoughts after Data + AI Summit. Overall, really well produced event. Databricks knows how to put on a conference. But if I’m being honest, the AI stuff started to blur together pretty fast. Also had very practical conversations about the less sexy problems: cost, reliability, orchestration, observability, governance,etc. A few things I kept hearing: Costs are becoming impossible to ignore. Not just for finance teams. Data teams are being forced to care because “we’ll optimize it later” apparently does not count as a strategy. Favorite booths and companies I’