Chris Child, VP of Product, Data Engineering at Snowflake, joins High Signal to deliver a new playbook for data leaders based on his recent MIT report, revealing why AI is paradoxically creating more work for data teams, not less. He explains how the function is undergoing a forced evolution from back-office “plumbing” to the strategic core of the enterprise, determining whether AI initiatives succeed or fail. The conversation maps the new skills and organizational structures required to navigate this shift.

We dig into why off-the-shelf LLMs consistently fail to generate useful SQL without a semantic layer to provide business context, and how the most effective data engineers must now operate like product managers to solve business problems. Chris provides a clear framework on the shift from writing code to managing a portfolio of AI agents, why solving for AI risk is an extension of existing data governance, and the counterintuitive strategy of moving slowly on foundations to unlock rapid, production-grade deployment.

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