In 2025, real-time data moved from important to mission-critical. From billion-event pipelines to AI agents reasoning over fresh data streams, the conversations this year revealed just how fast organizations are rethinking their data infrastructure and what’s possible when data streaming becomes the foundation.

In this episode, Joseph Morais curates standout moments from the year: the stakes of real-time data, the architectural decisions behind enterprise-grade streaming, and how AI strategy is shifting toward agentic, event-driven systems. You’ll hear leaders discuss architectures designed for zero data loss, solid governance, multi-agent orchestration, and why organizations choose Confluent as the data streaming platform for data streaming at scale.

You’ll learn:

• How enterprises use Apache Kafka® and Apache Flink® to meet mission-critical guarantees like reliability and data integrity
• Why real-time pipelines matter for agentic AI and fresh-signal reasoning
• What leaders evaluate when choosing a data streaming platform
• How to prepare architectures for multi-agent systems and 2026 AI roadmaps

The Guests:

• Cosmo Wolfe, CTO, Metronome 
• Chris Kapp, Software Architect, HS1 (Henry Schein One)
• Alex Haugland , Cursor Engineer, Anysphere
• Steffen Hoellinger, Co-Founder & CEO, Airy
• Ethan Chan, Co-Founder & CEO, Allium
• Joe Pardi, Sr. Director of Global Data Engineering, Covetrus
• Rami Al Lolah, Lead Architect - Integration Center of Excellence, Swedbank
• Sean Falconer, Sr. Director, Product Management - AI Strategy, Confluent
• Jeffrey Jonathan Jennings (J3), Founder, signalRoom
• Todd Smitala, Lead Engineer, Association of Professional Flight Attendants

Guest Highlights: 
“We are processing events on a second-level latency end-to-end… it'll show up on your end customer's invoice in sub-seconds, and you're cutting users off for fraud, all done exactly once.” — Cosmo Wolfe, Metronome

“Security loves us, right? Because everything is immutable. We know who did everything and we know who can access what and who has been accessing what.” — Chris Kapp, HS1 (Henry Schein One) 

“These are not dashboards… If you want to transform your business and take a proactive approach, reacting to signals as they’re happening, you need to shift your mindset and move data responsibilities left.” — Sean Falconer, Confluent

Episode Timestamps: 
*(00:00) - Looking Back at Data Streaming in 2025
*(00:38) -  Segment 1: Unique Streaming Use Cases
*(06:05) - Segment 2: The Power of Partnerships 
*(11:23) - Segment 3: Data Streaming and Real-Time AI

Dive Deeper into Data Streaming:

• EP1—Stream On: Unleashing Innovation with Data Streaming | Life Is But A Stream
• EP2—Processing Without Pause: Continuous Stream Processing and Apache Flink® | Life Is But A Stream
• EP3—The Connective Tissue: Shift Left to turn Data Chaos to Clarity | Life Is But A Stream

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Joseph: @thedatagiant
• Joseph’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thedatagiant
• Learn more at Confluent.io

Our Sponsor:  
Your data shouldn’t be a problem to manage. It should be your superpower. The Confluent data streaming platform transforms organizations with trustworthy, real-time data that seamlessly spans your entire environment and powers innovation across every use case. Create smarter, deploy faster, and maximize efficiency with a true data streaming platform from the pioneers in data streaming. Learn more at confluent.io.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.