Artificial intelligence, GenAI, and agentic AI will get major attention in 2026. Since data and analytics are the keys to success for these new endeavors, the demand for enterprise analytics has increased in order to address broad data issues in preparation for AI-based endeavors.   

It is from the position of analytics leadership that the enterprise mission will be executed and company leadership will emerge. The data professional is absolutely sitting on the performance of the company in this information economy and has an obligation to demonstrate the possibilities and originate the architecture, data, and projects that will deliver analytics. After all, no matter what business you’re in, you’re in the business of analytics. 

Are data lakehouses, data products, and data mesh trends or just talk? What about data governance, data privacy, data security, and data observability? Is open source dying? 

The coming years will be full of big changes in enterprise analytics and data architecture. William will kick off the eighth year of the Advanced Analytics series with a discussion of the trends winning organizations should build into their plans, expectations, vision, and awareness now. 

About the Speaker

William McKnight 
President, McKnight Consulting Group 

William McKnight has advised many of the world’s best-known organizations. His strategies form the information management plan for leading companies in numerous industries. He is a prolific author and a popular keynote speaker and trainer. He has performed dozens of benchmarks on leading database, data lake, streaming, and data integration products. William is the #1 global influencer in data warehousing and master data management, and he leads McKnight Consulting Group, which has twice placed on the Inc. 5000 list.