Ataccama FWRD 2025 is now behind us, but the conversations it sparked will continue to influence how CDOs and other data leaders approach the year ahead. The event brought together 1800+ attendees looking for greater clarity, strategies to build data trust and modernize data practices, and tips for navigating a dynamic AI landscape.

Speakers across our keynote, product, and customer-led sessions provided firsthand guidance for navigating today’s shifting data landscape. Ataccama’s leadership outlined their perspective on the future of the industry, and explained how the Ataccama ONE Agentic data trust platform can help organizations take critical steps forward, regardless of their current level of data maturity.

Here are three themes that surfaced repeatedly across the day’s sessions:

1. Trusted AI begins with trusted data: Every organization is experimenting with new AI use cases, but the ones that scale successfully share a common trait: they can trust their data. They invest early into building data trust, including implementing data quality checks, documenting lineage, and ensuring datasets are fit for purpose. Taking these foundational steps equates to AI outputs that are more predictable and easier to validate.
2. Data and business team goals are converging: More and more, business leaders see their organization’s data as a direct driver of growth and efficiency. It is no longer sidelined as a technical function that sits apart from the rest of the organization. Instead, governance, analytics, and operations teams are coming together and setting goals that are measured against real business outcomes.
3. Scattered stacks are giving way to unified platforms: Many teams are now feeling the hidden costs of maintaining a disparate stack of data tools. To overcome growing complexity and integration delays, enterprises are now moving toward unified platforms that provide as much consistency and automation as possible. This shift allows data teams to spend less time stitching systems together and more time delivering real business value.

Curious about which FWRD 2025 sessions are most relevant for you as a data leader? Start with the shortlist below for insights tailored to your role.

3 sessions that resonated with data leaders at FWRD 2025

The future of multi-agent systems for enterprise AI

Speakers: Jay Limburn, Chief Product Officer at Ataccama and Mubashir Masood, Principal AI Architect at Snowflake 

Jay and Mubashir took listeners through what they see as the next stage of AI adoption for many enterprises: multiple agents working together to support enterprise workflows. Their session focused on what this transition requires, highlighting strong governance, trusted data, clear lineage, and data management platforms that can support automated decision paths.

In the biggest Ataccama product announcement of the year, Jay also introduced the latest generation of the Ataccama ONE Agentic data trust platform.

Watch the session on demand to see how Ataccama ONE Agentic enables organizations to prepare data for AI at scale and maintain control as automation increases.

Trusted customer 360 as a growth driver

Speakers: Krishna Cheriath, Head of Digital and AI at Thermo Fisher Scientific and Pete Youngs, Managing Partner at Ortecha

Without a trusted data foundation, it’s incredibly difficult for CDOs to deliver on the expectations the business has of them. Often, these expectations center around revenue growth, retention, and more effective personalization. In this session, Krishna and Pete walked attendees through how the most successful data leaders are building out unified, high-quality customer and product views to personalize at scale and move the needle on key performance metrics.

Asking better questions in the age of quick answers

Speaker: Cassie Kozyrkov, former Chief Decision Scientist at Google; AI Adviser & CEO

Cassie Kozyrkov closed the event with a reminder that fast answers are not the same as better decisions. As AI speeds up analysis, real competitive advantage can now be found in the questions data leaders ask. She encouraged the audience to focus on intent, context, clarity, and framing when they ask questions of AI agents, noting that good questions guide organizations toward insight, while poorly formed ones generate noise. 

She summarized, “If the answers come faster, the questions matter more. And the leader is the steward of what’s ‘valuable.'” 

The session concluded with the idea that leaders need to train their own clarity and wisdom to responsibly scale their intentions using available technology. Her session offered a thoughtful reset at a time when AI tools can risk overwhelming teams with information, without adding value.

What these insights mean for the year ahead

Data leaders who want to build momentum in 2026 will need to focus on several areas. The first is growing trust in their data. Without it, they cannot rely on it to fuel their AI models or power AI initiatives. Second, data teams should embrace the spotlight, realizing that their work and goals have converged with those of the wider business. And third, they should look to simplify and unify their technology landscape to reduce hidden costs, increase clarity, and move faster where possible.

These themes surfaced again and again at FWRD 2025, reflecting where the industry is heading in 2026 and where data teams can make their greatest impact. All sessions are now available to watch and share on demand.