Navigating data management modernisation to deliver the AI-ready tech stack of the future

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Embrace the future: the role of technology in shaping where enterprise goes from here is undeniable (iStock)

Alteryx is a Business Reporter client.

As organisations prepare to navigate the next few years, operating against a backdrop of constant change will continue to challenge business leaders globally. But no matter what the future brings, data-driven decision-making will remain the lifeblood of tomorrow’s business. It will profoundly impact decisions, by bringing the insights required to deliver innovations that stimulate unique customer experiences and growth.

AI is already transcending its hype status to become a business value generator, and organisations of all sizes are embracing it, especially generative AI, to stay ahead of today’s fast-paced world. But this AI movement is also a booster for significant technological changes to come – rapid transformations set to shape how enterprises of the future operate and perform.

That’s why business leaders are turning to CIOs and IT leaders for insights and to figure out enterprise readiness strategies to ensure their organisations can take advantage of current and future AI capabilities.

Why data increasingly means business value

With global data creation projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes by 2025, there is enormous value potential in becoming a data-driven business. But to do so requires a tech stack built for the era of intelligence.

While today’s organisations have a strong appetite for AI and automation, the reality is that vast volumes of data and numerous data pipelines sit at the core of these technologies. CIOs and IT leaders are already assessing the technologies required to transform business approaches to data-driven decision-making, and in a future where generative AI is set to be deeply integrated into every facet of business, this has become critical.

The role of technology in shaping the future enterprise is undeniable. The exponential growth of data within every enterprise and the ever-changing business landscape suggest that AI-driven automation will remain a key characteristic of future enterprises. Alteryx research reveals that 60 per cent of business leaders say technology investment will have a transformative impact on future productivity, and 61 per cent say investments in advanced technology will increase as they respond to the changing market environment. The challenge is turning these increased data volumes and varieties into business opportunities, by preparing for this increasingly complex, data-driven future.

Forward-thinking IT leaders already see a direct correlation between modernising the data management journey across the entire tech stack and facilitating the extraction of value from data at the speed and scale needed for real-time intelligence. The same Alteryx research suggests that digital transformation relating to AI and machine learning will be the number one characteristic of the future enterprise, and tech stack priorities are already shifting to reflect this. Generative AI, quantum computing and machine learning operations (MLOps) are cited as the technologies most likely to see the largest shift in accelerated adoption in the future.

Delivering next-generation, AI-ready business transformation

While it only seems a short time since the pandemic forced many organisations to accelerate transformation at breakneck speeds, the rise of AI-related technologies will reinfuse these transformations. Why? Because AI has lowered the barrier to delivering productivity gains by delivering data-driven insights with just a sentence or a prompt. With countless data-oriented AI technologies and intelligent systems already available, the ultimate goal of this transformation is to modernise the data management journey across the entire stack.

To do so, tech leaders, more than ever, need to be the changemakers capable of prioritising both the technical needs of IT and the needs of the business – all while ensuring none of the connected systems and technologies disrupt the value chain or create friction.

No one-size-fits-all technology can help businesses understand customer needs, drive efficiencies and find the competitive edge their organisations need. For any technology to accelerate the flow of data across the future tech stack, you must:

1. Avoid overly complex architectures and tools requiring specific skillsets. Only by empowering the entire workforce to take full advantage of technologies to harness and compute the data, and establish the automation resources available, will you unlock the full potential of the future tech stack and ensure it delivers ROI by driving business value across the entire organisation.

2. Learn to identify exciting, shiny trends that may look good but won’t perform and avoid purchasing a bundle of tools not designed for business users. If it disrupts the value chain and creates friction because one part of the tech stack breaks or a capability is missing in the value chain, then it causes friction for everything else – costing money, time and potential innovation.

3. Invest in platforms that support multiple personas, unlimited use-cases and feature expansion – all key to reducing costs, driving ROI and future-proofing investments.

4. Look for AI-ready, future-proof platforms with the data quality, security and governance mechanisms that IT needs. Provide an accessible AI and NLP interface to enable everyone to initiate data quality checks that identify potential anomalies, easily transform and standardise data based on data quality rules and confidently deliver the insights the business needs to make quick, confident decisions – sometimes in a split second.

At Alteryx, we continue to infuse AI innovation into the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform through AiDIN, to support multiple personas, unlimited use-cases and future feature expansion. Our innovative and powerful multi-modal approach to AI-driven analytics enables every persona to leverage their tool of choice to develop collaborative, real-time analytical insights, from chat prompts to no-code workflows and code-friendly Python and SQL notebooks. All of these can be live-translated by generative AI into a single analytical solution that enables data outcomes across the business at scale.

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Read more about how the Alteryx Analytics Cloud Platform provides the data orchestration layer for 49 per cent of the Global 2000 enterprises – ensuring that businesses have the necessary analytics, IT governance and security to accommodate the growing demands of data, automation and generative AI.

Trevor Schulze, Chief Information Officer, Alteryx (Alteryx)

As Alteryx’s Chief Information Officer, Schulze leads the global IT team in delivering a comprehensive, business-led technology services and solutions portfolio. He works to inspire global teams to envision and execute creative solutions to difficult business problems and successfully capitalise on new market opportunities. His focus is on transforming businesses through innovative operational and technology initiatives and bringing award-winning products to market.

Before joining Alteryx, Schulze served as RingCentral’s Chief Information Officer, leading a multinational team responsible for setting the company’s strategic IT direction and reimagining its business processes to support the business goals of growth and profitability.