--- title: "The Great Data Debate 2026: AI Broke the Data Stack" url: "https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/" description: "Your hub to relive the biggest debates in data. Watch session recordings, explore key moments, and download resources from industry leaders who debated: Will AI Analysts Kill 70% of Dashboards? and Context Graphs: The Next $1T Opportunity." keywords: "great data debate 2026, AI data stack, AI analysts, context graphs, data transformation, semantic layers, data predictions 2026, modern data stack, data catalog, metadata management, data governance, AI-powered data, systems of context, ontologies, context engineering, data teams, data ecosystem, data strategy, data leaders, BI dashboards" --- > Atlan is hosting Context Conference, bringing together the leaders and builders at the frontier of giving AI the context it needs to understand their business. It runs online on October 28, 2026, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM ET. Atlan co-founder Prukalpa Sankar opens and closes the day. Leaders from AstraZeneca, BNY and Verizon share why they invest in context and what they get from it. Registrants get early access to The AI Context Gap, a new study from MIT Technology Review Insights. Register: https://atlan.com/context-conference/ **The Great Data Debate 2026: AI Broke the Data Stack. Recap, Watch Center, on demand.** Your hub to relive the biggest debates in data: watch session recordings, explore key moments, and download resources from the two debates, "Will AI Analysts Kill 70% of Dashboards?" and "Context Graphs: The Next $1T Opportunity." ## Speakers and their stances | Speaker | Company | Stance shown on the page | |---|---|---| | Bob Muglia | Snowflake | AI will replace 50% of data teams by 2027. | | Tristan Handy | dbt Labs | The semantic layer is the real AI infrastructure. | | Cindi Howson | ThoughtSpot | Governance is the make-or-break for AI success. | | Barry McCardel | Hex | Dashboards are already dead. We just don't know it yet. | | Karthik Ravindran | Microsoft | AI analysts? Overhyped and undertested. | | Jaya Gupta | Foundation Capital | Context is the new data moat. | | Prukalpa Sankar | Atlan | Context is the new data moat. | | Tony Gentilcore | Glean | Context is the new data moat. | | Chris Child | Snowflake | Context is the new data moat. | ## Session 1: The AI Analyst - Will It Kill 70% of Dashboards by 2026? Recording, 45:30. This debate brings together the people who've defined BI's past, are building its future, and are watching AI expose its cracks: - Cindi Howson, who helped shape how the world evaluates BI platforms at Gartner and Thoughtspot - Barry McCardel, who's building the future of BI for an AI-native world at Hex - Tristan Handy, who changed how data teams think about semantics and transformation at dbt Labs and RJMetrics - Chris Child, who's building Snowflake Intelligence and Cortex - Shubham Bhargav, who's in the trenches building talk-to-data at the world's biggest enterprises Session page: [https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/ai-analysts/](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/ai-analysts/). Key moments: - [Operationalizing AI analysts](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/operationalizing-ai-analysts/) - [Semantic layers and context for AI analysts](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-for-ai-analysts/) - [What challenges does building an AI analyst create?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/challenges-ai-analysts/) ## Session 2: Context Graphs: The Next $1T Opportunity - But Who Owns Them? Recording, 52:15. Everyone agrees AI needs context. Nobody agrees on where it should live. This debate brings the divergent, leading perspectives together: - **The System of Data:** Bob Muglia, former CEO of Snowflake - **The System of Record:** Karthik Ravindran, GM of Data Platforms at Microsoft - **The System of Agents:** Tony Gentilcore, co-founder of Glean - **The Universal Context Layer:** Prukalpa Sankar, co-founder of Atlan - **The Origin Story:** Jaya Gupta, author of the viral essay [Context Graphs: AI's Trillion-Dollar Opportunity](https://foundationcapital.com/context-graphs-ais-trillion-dollar-opportunity/) Session page: [https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-graphs/](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-graphs/). Key moments: - [What different roles do AI analysts and dashboards play in analytics?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/purpose-of-ai-analysts-and-dashboards/) - [Challenges in bridging the context gap](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/challenges-context/) - [Who will own the context layer?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/who-owns-context/) - [Why is context the next trillion dollar opportunity?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/trillion-dollar-opportunity/) - [The composition of context](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/composition-of-context/) - [How do you actually build an enterprise context graph?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/building-context-graphs/) - [Context engineering and the future of data engineering](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-engineering/) ## Resources Download guides, frameworks, and key takeaways from the debates. - **Report:** [The 7 Shifts Reshaping the Data Stack for an AI-First World](https://atlan.com/resources/ai-broke-the-data-stack-predictions-for-2026/), based on insights from 550+ data leaders and lessons from AI-forward enterprises. - **Event:** [Activate: Bringing Context to Life for AI Agents](https://atlan.com/activate/). Context graphs are everywhere; Atlan's biggest product launch to date, with new product announcements like Context Studio, AI Stewards, and Automation Engine. - **Newsletter:** [Metadata Weekly](https://metadataweekly.substack.com/), a human-first community newsletter exploring the future of data and AI. Book a demo: [https://atlan.com/context-layer-demo/](https://atlan.com/context-layer-demo/).