Episode 200: The Road Ahead for Data and AI

Two hundred episodes in, and we’re done with the warm-up!

Episode 200 finds Rob flying solo and pulling zero punches on the question everyone’s quietly asking: what’s the future of data work? No anniversary nostalgia here, just uncomfortable truths about AI bootcamps at Starbucks, semantic models going naked, and why being “pretty good” at anything is about to get very complicated. If you think you know where this is all headed, think again.

Rob spent yesterday turning a non-techie real estate agent into an AI power user, and what he saw exceeded anything from the early Power BI days. But here’s what nobody’s talking about: the invisible barriers, the shifting skill requirements, and why the middle ground might be disappearing faster than anyone realizes. The lines between data work and software work are blurring, structured versus unstructured data is becoming meaningless, and the comfortable assumptions about who does what are about to get stress-tested.

Two hundred episodes of calling it straight, and this one tackles the questions that keep data professionals up at night. Some answers might surprise you. Others might make you uncomfortable. [But you’ll know exactly where you stand when the dust settles]