The Joe Reis Show

In this episode, I sit down with Prukalpa Sankar, the founder of Atlan, to discuss the missing piece that makes artificial intelligence actually useful in the enterprise: context. We dive deep into building the "second brain" of a company, the reality of agent development, and how to transition a traditional business into an AI-native organization. If you're looking to understand why your AI agents are getting abandoned in testing hell or how the roles of data and engineering are fundamentally shifting, this is the conversation for you. As always, we keep it practical and grounded. No hype, just education from the front lines of data architecture.What an Enterprise Context Layer Actually Is (Prukalpa's new article): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-enterprise-context-layer-actually-prukalpa--avdqc/?trackingId=kq8lIdYdRnKsHu%2BdREYB3Q%3D%3DTimestamps01:15 - The missing half of AI: Contextual intelligence 02:15 - Reverse engineering business context and the second brain 05:06 - Escaping testing hell and hitting the 80% accuracy threshold for agents 07:54 - Simulating context for analytics use cases 11:34 - Does data quality matter for AI agents? 15:37 - Capturing tacit knowledge and human expertise 21:08 - The organizational chart of the future and "E-shaped" humans 26:26 - How Atlan transformed into a completely AI-native company 34:22 - Banning engineers from coding and the new mental model for work 39:05 - Societal resistance, historical context, and embracing technological change 46:00 - Optimism, childlike curiosity, and the path forward

Juan Sequeda stops by after a massive month on the road to unpack the latest industry shifts, including takeaways from the Snowflake Summit. We dive into the real state of AI agents in the enterprise, separating the hype from the reality of adoption. We also explore the dangers of creating a "semantic swamp," (cousin of data swamps) the shifting landscape of vendor strategies with the rise of the modern monolith, and why data teams need to accept that getting work done (not data) is the true center of the universe. Finally, we discuss why pragmatism beats pedantry every time when building data architecture.🎙️ SPONSORSRevify - surprise Snowflake bills? One customer cut theirs 50% in 48 hours.→ https://revify.com/demo

In this Freestyle Friday episode, Ryan Dolly and I record straight from the historic Guardian Building in downtown Detroit to talk about life, tech, and data outside the San Francisco bubble. We had an amazing time connecting at the Data in the D town hall and exploring a city undergoing massive revitalization. Detroit was once the Silicon Valley of its time, peaking at nearly 1.9 million residents.
Now, the city has a tangible "comeback" energy, moving past its history of empty fields and boarded-up buildings to build something entirely new. We discuss why building a career away from the coasts offers incredible lifestyle advantages, especially if you want to avoid the hyper-focus on AI software tools and work with real-world physical assets like automotive, mobility, and robotics.
I'm excited about Detroit's potential and plan to spend more time here.

🎙️ SPONSORSRevify - surprise Snowflake bills? One customer cut theirs 50% in 48 hours.→ https://revify.com/demo

It's been a few months on the road, bouncing through San Francisco a bunch, across Asia and Europe, and a quick stop in Detroit. In this audio-only Freestyle Friday I unpack what I've been seeing out there. If I had to pick one word for the mood worldwide, it's uncertainty: energy and supply shocks rippling out of the Middle East, fuel and resource shortages, flights getting canceled with no notice, and AI scrambling the playbook for vendors, practitioners, and leaders alike.
I get into why so many data tooling companies are quietly having existential conversations, how Atlan tore its product down to rebuild AI-native (a full conversation with Prukalpa is coming next week), and a fun experiment I shipped this week with DuckDB Quack.
I also dig into the split I keep seeing: senior practitioners getting superpowers while juniors face a brutal job market, leaders being asked to do far more with less, and why I think the industrial-age org chart is finally on its way out.
Plus some personal updates: the new book is now targeting late July and a companion course is on the way.
Finally, I'm mixing audio and video formats going forward (Freestyle Friday will probably be mostly audio), the Practical Data Community newsletter is live, and there's a Salt Lake City conference brewing for late January. Lots in the hopper...
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This episode is sponsored by Revefi, who gives you full cost and performance visibility for Snowflake by warehouse, user, and workload. One team cut Snowflake costs ~50% across 711 warehouses in under 48 hours.

Book a demo at revefi.com/demo.

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Timestamps
0:00 — Intro & travel recap — Sets the stage: months of globe-trotting across Asia, Europe, and the US
1:10 — Global uncertainty & resource scarcity — Fuel/water shortages in Southeast Asia, flight cancellations in Europe, ripple effects of geopolitical tensions
5:30 — AI dominates every conversation — The #1 topic at conferences worldwide; vendors facing existential questions and forced to rethink everything (Atlan pivot, DuckDB agent idea)
10:14 — AI's impact on workers at every level — Senior practitioners gaining superpowers, juniors worried about jobs, leaders expected to do more with less
17:51 — Key takeaway: everyone feels behind — Even top AI insiders are uncertain; give yourself grace, upskill, and consider building something for yourself
20:38 — Announcements — Book drops July 27th, course coming, Practical Data Community Newsletter live, fall travel schedule (London, Paris, possible Salt Lake City conference)

If you're a consultant and you're not using AI agents yet, your competitors are. No surprise, but they're delivering faster, cheaper, and better than ever.Chris Tabb, founder of LEIT Data, joins me live at Confluent Current London 2026 to talk honestly about how AI agents are reshaping the consultancy model, from billing structures and team rollouts, to building internal tribal knowledge and outpacing firms that are still staffing up the old way.Timestamps:0:33 — How Chris is Going Agentic1:56 — Token Maxing Leaderboards5:26 — AI Agents: Year-Over-Year7:08 — Tagile: Agentic Development9:00 — AI in Consultancy17:22 — Prompt Management & Context Quality