--- title: "WTF is the Context Layer Series | Atlan" url: "https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/" description: "A bi-weekly live series for AI leaders and builders. One burning question per episode, an open AMA floor, and guests who've actually built context infrastructure." keywords: "context layer, AI governance, enterprise AI, data context, atlan events" --- > 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/ **WTF is the Context Layer?** is Atlan's bi-weekly live series for AI leaders and builders, started May 12, 2026. One burning question per episode, an open AMA floor, and guests who've actually built context infrastructure. ## Bring your questions. We'll bring answers. ...or more questions. Context is having a moment. Every new startup, and legacy business, is now a context company. The LangChain CEO called context engineering the defining skill for AI. Even MIT published a piece on context being the single biggest reason for AI failures. And in all of this noise, you're still left with real questions nobody's answering. This series is built to work through your questions, with guests who actually know what they're talking about. Questions the series takes on: - Why do my AI agents keep getting enterprise data wrong? - How do I give AI the context that lives in my people's heads? - How can I make sure our organizational context stays our own? - How do I actually know if my context layer is working? - Who should own the context layer? - What does an AI team look like when it owns the context layer? - Is context engineering a real discipline? - How do you know when your context layer is good enough to ship an agent? - Does every company need one, or is this only for large enterprises? Viewers can submit their own burning questions about the context layer through a form on the page. ## Upcoming sessions (as listed on the page) Register for any session on the page. Can't make the live session? Register anyway: on-demand access goes out within 24 hours. ### EP 06 · Can a Context Graph Alone Make AI Reliable? Thu, Sep 17, 2026 · 12:30 PM ET · live. Guests: Jaya Gupta (Foundation Capital) with Austin Kronz (Atlan). Late last year, Jaya Gupta called the context graph AI's next trillion-dollar opportunity: the reasoning behind a company's decisions that systems of record never stored. The post set off a wave of debate across the field. What it left unsettled is whether a strong graph is enough alone, or whether reliable AI needs the context layer around it, the wider system that governs how those decisions get used. Jaya joins Austin to work through what a context graph must hold and where it stops. Questions they'll tackle: - How much of the reasoning behind a decision can actually be captured as data? - How does a context graph stay accurate when the enterprise changes? - What happens when an agent faces a decision the context graph has never seen? - What keeps two agents using the same context graph from contradicting each other? Episode page: [https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/context-graph-vs-context-layer-for-ai-reliability/](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/context-graph-vs-context-layer-for-ai-reliability/) ## Past sessions Every episode is on-demand: watch the full conversation or read the recap. | Ep | Date | Title | Guests | Recording | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 01 | May 12, 2026 | WTF is the Context Layer? | Austin Kronz & Prukalpa Sankar | [link](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/what-is-context-layer-recording/) | | 02 | May 27, 2026 | Industry Perspective: Why is Context so Important? | Austin Kronz & Sanjeev Mohan | [link](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/why-is-context-important-recording/) | | 03 | Jul 15, 2026 | Is Semantic Layer = Context Layer? | Austin Kronz & David Mariani | [link](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/is-semantic-layer-context-layer-recording/) | | 04 | Jul 30, 2026 | From Ontology to Context Layer: What Actually Changed With AI? | Austin Kronz & Jessica Talisman | [link](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/from-ontology-to-context-layer-recording/) | | 05 | Aug 19, 2026 | How Do Graph Databases and the Context Layer Fit Together? | Austin Kronz, Emil Eifrem & Prukalpa Sankar | [link](https://atlan.com/wtf-context-layer/how-do-graph-databases-and-the-context-layer-fit-together-recording/) |