I’ll be honest. I get a real sense of joy bringing people together—especially when those people are passionate about data and its transformative power of driving competitive advantage and value for their organizations.
Recently, at our Data Citizens® ‘24 on the Road, I had the immense pleasure of connecting with our vibrant community of data professionals, Collibra customers and our valued partners. The energy and enthusiasm at our events in New York, London, Berlin and elsewhere has been palpable as have the insights, many of them painting an exciting vision for our rapidly changing world. A vision that recognizes data governance is an increasingly critical organizational capability, especially as we move ever faster into the age of AI.
What is a Data Citizen and why is Data Citizens on the Road important?
If you use data to do your job, you’re a data citizen. And Data Citizens ‘24 on the Road (DCOTR) is an opportunity to learn how successful data governance teams are prevailing in today’s new normal for data and AI. Join thought leaders from Collibra, Google Cloud and other data leaders to learn how intelligent, unified and adaptive approaches to governance can help your organization deliver data and AI that is more reliable, traceable and compliant.
The AI journey is accelerating
In 2024, Data Citizens on the Road is focusing on “Data + AI.”
Today, everyone wants to talk about AI. With adoption rates increasing as much as expectations, the promise (and the peril) is the challenge of our age, especially for data professionals. So our Data Citizens on the Road events featured speakers from IDC, Google Cloud and Collibra discussing critical topics facing organizations looking to leverage AI.
To give just one of many examples, at our October DCOTR event in London, Stewart Bond, Research VP at IDC, presented “Navigating the future: The critical role of data governance in AI success” followed by a fireside chat with me. (You can watch the replay here.)
One of the most interesting moments was when Stewart shared his analysis of the evolution of AI—a multi-year journey from AI scramble (where we are today) to AI pivot (in 2025) to AI-fueled businesses, which IDC predicts will be common by 2027.
It’s an insight that helps us zoom out to a longer view of where we are and where we’re going. And by all estimates—in fact, the latest IDC estimate is that AI will add nearly $20T to the global economy by 2030—it’s clear that the transformation into an AI economy will only intensify.
Despite all the hype and the hope, and while enterprises are adopting generative AI and scaling up AI roadmaps at an increasingly rapid pace, we are still in the early days of the AI revolution. As you can see in Stewart’s slide, 2025 is a pivotal year. We’ll see the introduction of AI agents and other LLM-powered solutions that will accelerate the rate of adoption even more as use cases are more effectively addressed with AI tools. We’ll experience the end of experimentation and a shift to AI planning and building for scale.
It’s why these changes will not only impact AI engineers and line-of-business AI users from finance to marketing; IDC predicts a shift in organizational leadership strategy as CDOs rival CIOs in influence because of the importance of data quality in deploying AI products.
Our evolving AI world offers an incredible new capacity for innovation and productivity. In some ways, however, it’s based on an old story. At the end of the day, organizations that deploy successful AI products will also implement effective AI governance.
The impact of gen AI: IDC predicts the global impact of gen AI will reach nearly $20T by 2030.
Why AI governance is essential
The key takeaway from Data Citizens on the Road ‘24 is clear: There is no AI without data. And ensuring not just high-quality data, but data in context is pivotal. This is where governance comes in. It’s about creating a data estate that’s ready for AI.
We must move away from the traditional perception of governance as a gatekeeper saying “No, you can’t have access” and towards a model of enablement that empowers data citizens.
In 2025, data professionals will have a lot on their plates. At Collibra, we recognize that organizations today face complex data challenges within hybrid data ecosystems. They also have big ambitions for data and AI. Many are ready to accelerate data and AI use cases while ensuring compliance, but they’re struggling with fragmented governance and a lack of visibility across their entire data landscape.
This is where Collibra makes a big difference
Collibra unifies governance for data and AI. Unlike other data and AI governance solutions, Collibra offers a complete platform, powered by an enterprise metadata graph, that unifies data and AI governance to provide automated visibility, context and control—across every system and use case.
With Collibra, you can accelerate all your data and AI use cases safely and with well-understood data. It’s what we call “Data Confidence.”
You can discover more about the value of AI governance and the rapidly evolving AI landscape at the next DCOTR. Interested in learning more?
Visit our website for more information about upcoming events near you.
I can’t wait to see you!
