Key takeaways from San Francisco’s Databricks data and AI summit

The Databricks Data and AI Summit is widely recognized as the flagship event for the global data, analytics and AI community. Callum Stainer and I were delighted to form a small delegation from Eames Consulting at the most recent summit from 9th-12th June. 

Held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the event brought together 22,000 professionals to talk about the latest innovations in data and AI technologies and hear from an incredible list of expert speakers from Databricks and across the data and AI community. It was also a great chance for us to catch up with people from our network. Here are my key takeaways from an eventful four days. 

As tech moves on, so must we 

Businesses are utilizing autonomous AI agents to simplify their processes and complete repetitive tasks. While some professionals view this as a threat to certain human occupations, it also means people will be freed up to focus on more complex tasks. Many of the businesses we spoke to are upskilling their people to utilize AI effectively, which is a great way of showing your people you’re invested in them. For both clients and candidates, upskilling in data and AI is essential to remaining relevant. 

Interactions are becoming impersonal 

I had a very interesting conversation about movies at the event – or to be specific, the part played by AI in helping you find the movie you want. AI-based movie recommendation system MovieBox utilizes machine learning techniques to provide Spotify-style personalized recommendations based on what users have liked in the past, taking into account genre, actors, director and even runtime. You tell it you want to watch a movie similar to another movie and it will give you suggestions. 

Similarly, customer service chatbots have been in operation for a number of years. Although being able to provide a quick answer to a query is crucial to an organization’s efficiency, there’s also a danger they could become too impersonal in dealing with their stakeholders, and this is certainly something we’re seeing in the hiring process.  

We’ll always needs that human touch 

There was a wide consensus among the candidates we spoke to that hiring processes are getting longer and more impersonal. After going through several stages of interviews, candidates are then receiving an AI automated rejection with no feedback. In a client led market, businesses need someone dedicated to reaching out to candidates and giving them proper feedback. While hiring managers are using AI to make their lives easier, they mustn’t lose sight of candidate experience, or that defies the object of reaching out to them in the first place. 

How is data and AI affecting your business or career? 

We’re very keen to learn how the fast-moving world of data and AI is affecting our clients and candidates. Whether you want to make a hire, find your next opportunity or even just learn more about what’s happening in the tech landscape, get in touch with me to find out how we can help you.