---
title: "Why is context the next trillion dollar opportunity?"
url: "https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/trillion-dollar-opportunity/"
description: "The panel makes the case that as AI models commoditize, the real competitive advantage shifts from intelligence to institutional memory - and unpacks why context is what makes AI reliable, not just possible."
keywords: "atlan, data governance"
---

> 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/

**A highlight clip from The Great Data Debate 2026 (AI Broke the Data Stack), Session 2, Context Graphs: The Next $1T Opportunity, But Who Owns Them?** The video plays on the page: [watch at https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/trillion-dollar-opportunity/](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/trillion-dollar-opportunity/).

The panel makes the case that as AI models commoditize, the real competitive advantage shifts from intelligence to institutional memory - and unpacks why context is what makes AI reliable, not just possible.

## Speakers

- **Bob Muglia**, Former CEO, Snowflake. As former CEO of Snowflake and a longtime Microsoft executive, Bob has built and scaled the platforms modern data runs on. He represents the System of Data perspective: if context becomes core infrastructure, warehouses and data platforms are the natural gravity well.
- **Jaya Gupta**, Partner, Foundation Capital. Jaya frames context as AI's trillion-dollar unlock in the viral essay that made context graphs unavoidable: Context Graphs: AI's Trillion-Dollar Opportunity. She brings an investor's clarity to where durable value actually compounds when it comes to context.
- **Karthik Ravindran**, GM, Enterprise Data & AI, Microsoft. Karthik represents the hyperscaler reality as GM of Azure Data, which embeds ontology and context into cloud systems like Fabric IQ. He represents the System of Record and challenges whether independent context systems can truly keep up.
- **Prukalpa Sankar**, Co-founder, Atlan. Prukalpa has worked across hundreds of enterprises to understand where context actually lives: in metadata, lineage, ownership, policies, and usage, not inside any single tool. She believes context must exist as a universal, independent layer.
- **Tony Gentilcore**, Co-founder, Glean. Co-founder and Product Engineering Lead at Glean. With 20+ years building high-performance products, he spent a decade at Google modernizing Search and later led the Chrome Speed Team, shaping how data is accessed and delivered at scale.

## Related resources

- Highlight: [Who will own the context layer?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/who-owns-context/)
- Highlight: [Context engineering and the future of data engineering](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-engineering/)
- Highlight: [Composition of context](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/composition-of-context/)
- Highlight: [How do you actually build an enterprise context graph?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/building-context-graphs/)
- Highlight: [Challenges in bridging the context gap](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/challenges-context/)
- Highlight: [Semantic layers and context for AI analysts](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/context-for-ai-analysts/)
- Highlight: [What different roles do AI analysts and dashboards play in analytics?](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/purpose-of-ai-analysts-and-dashboards/)
- Highlight: [Operationalizing AI analysts](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/operationalizing-ai-analysts/)

All recordings: [The Great Data Debate 2026](https://atlan.com/great-data-debate-2026/).