Over the past few months, Ignition from Australia and Nexus Data from South Africa have been teaming up to look at best selling author Zjaen Coetzee's best selling book, Driving RAPPID Results - a look at the frameworks and methodologies within the data industry that can be improved to get better results for everyone.  In this Podcast, Zjaen and Ignition CEO Julien Redmond sit down and discuss the series, what they learnt and what the future has in store.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

In This Issue of the Data pro News, we look at an excerpt from "The Data Engineering Mandate for 2026," outlines the critical transformation facing data engineering professionals as Artificial Intelligence matures and demands robust infrastructure. The author argues that legacy, batch-oriented data systems are insufficient for modern AI, particularly for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which requires real-time, low-latency data pipelines. To resolve this, the document proposes five key shifts for 2026, including the widespread adoption of real-time streaming infrastructure (like Change Data Capture), the elevation of data contracts into governance mandates, and the consolidation around lakehouse architectures. Furthermore, it addresses the paradox of AI automating foundational tasks, which necessitates data engineers pivoting to high-level architecture, governance, and AgentOps to manage fragmented AI agent ecosystems. Ultimately, the article asserts that AI success is now bottlenecked by data infrastructure maturity, requiring immediate investment in real-time platforms and automated governance.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

This analytical article from the Data Pro News provides a comparative overview of the newly released Gemini 3 Pro and Claude Opus 4.5 large language models, specifically focusing on their utility and risks within the field of data engineering. The author contends that while Gemini 3 offers a revolutionary low cost-to-context ratio and compelling multimodal capabilities (such as converting whiteboard diagrams to code), it presents a significant liability due to an alarming 88% hallucination rate when it should ideally abstain from answering. Conversely, Claude Opus 4.5 is portrayed as the more reliable and semantically robust choice for complex SQL generation and agentic refactoring workflows, despite its higher token cost. Ultimately, the piece advocates for a hybrid "bicameral" architecture, suggesting professionals should orchestrate both models—using Gemini for low-risk bulk processing and context scanning, and reserving Claude for high-stakes logic execution—to achieve robust and economically viable data pipelines.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

This episode we're taking a detailed examination of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the retail industry, particularly focusing on the high stakes of the upcoming holiday shopping season as a crucial test for new technology investments. It highlights that major brands like Puma and Levi’s are already integrating AI into business operations and consumer outreach, signalling that those who hesitate risk falling behind the competition. The core benefit of AI is its ability to combat "decision fatigue" by offering hyper-personalised shopping experiences and accelerating product discovery, which is already attracting consumers, with nearly half of shoppers having used AI tools for retail purchases. Furthermore, the text suggests that AI's capacity to deliver speed, relevance, and convenience could potentially shift the balance of apparel sales back toward online channels, challenging the plateauing growth of e-commerce. Ultimately, the success of AI this holiday season—especially in delivering positive, friction-free experiences—will determine whether it moves from a novelty to a necessity, accelerating future retail strategy and investment.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

In this week's Data Pro Newsletter, an article titled "The RAG 2.0 Revolution Need to Knows," focuses on how the introduction of Google's Gemini File Search Tool is fundamentally changing the field of data engineering and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). The author argues that this managed service ushers in "RAG 2.0," effectively industrialising the process by abstracting away the complex infrastructure and operational labour associated with traditional, self-managed "RAG 1.0" systems, thereby shifting the build-versus-buy economic calculus. Significant strategic implications are discussed, including the move from fixed operational expenditure to variable consumption costs, the advantage of Hybrid Search in solving the "out of domain" data problem, and the strategic trade-off between vendor lock-in and operational efficiency. Ultimately, the text recommends a "Managed-First Policy" for non-differentiating applications while reserving costly DIY RAG builds for core competitive differentiators.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

This week's Data pro News provides a critical retrospective on the impact of near-infinite context windows in enterprise Artificial Intelligence workflows during 2025, confirming the predicted exponential leap in AI agent power. The analysis highlights that models routinely handle millions of tokens, transforming sectors like legal, healthcare, and software development, leading to dramatic improvements in document analysis and code review. However, the article also addresses the complexities and risks that were underestimated, specifically identifying challenges related to the amplification of bad data quality, significant privacy paradoxes requiring new governance, and a notable increase in computational cost and response latency for complex queries. Ultimately, the text argues that mastering context governance and strategic deployment is crucial for enterprises to gain a competitive advantage in this rapidly evolving AI landscape.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

This week we're doing an extensive overview of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, focusing particularly on both the common and unusual ways the technology is integrated into daily life. One source comprehensively lists the many AI services and solutions offered by a development company, detailing how AI enhances functions from healthcare and e-learning to real estate and travel. The remaining sources concentrate on "weird" or "surprising" real-world AI uses, which range from smart appliances like AI-powered toilets and toothbrushes, to creative applications such as a robotic burger chef, AI lyric generators for rap music, and programs designed to compose songs in the style of deceased musicians. Additionally, these texts highlight AI's role in animal welfare, including facial recognition for fish and robotic beehives, and in public safety and convenience, such as crime fighting and automated virtual assistants.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

We look into an article titled "Surviving the AI Bubble: Your Need to Knows for 2026" from datapro.news, provides a critical analysis of the current state of enterprise AI adoption, noting that the vast majority of companies are seeing near-zero measurable return on investment despite significant spending. The author argues that this failure is due to a systemic "Architectural Debt" rooted in obsolete data infrastructure, not a lack of AI capability. To survive the impending market realignment, the text recommends that data professionals must pivot from batch-based systems to real-time streaming architectures and "AI Factory Models," prioritising robust data governance and lineage tracking. Furthermore, it advocates for an SLM-first (Small Language Model) strategy to address the high costs of Large Language Models and stresses that compliance, driven by regulations like the EU AI Act, must become an inherent architectural requirement rather than an afterthought.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

We take a multi-faceted overview of the current state and impact of generative artificial intelligence across society and industry. One source offers a first-person account of exploitative labour practices faced by the "gig workers" responsible for training AI models, arguing that the threat is less the technology itself and more the billionaires who control it. Supporting this notion, two Pew Research Center reports detail how AI is altering public interaction, showing that Google users are less likely to click on source links when presented with an AI summary, and that Americans generally react negatively to the discovery of AI involvement in creative or professional tasks like political speeches and news articles. Finally, a business analysis highlights that the majority of generative AI pilot programs fail to deliver measurable business value, citing case studies of failures in legal tech, retail chatbots, and logistics that stem primarily from poor strategy, inadequate governance, and unrealistic expectations rather than technical flaws.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe

This Week's article from datapro.news analyses the pervasive and high failure rates plaguing all types of enterprise data projects, including basic analytics and advanced AI implementations. It identifies three primary systemic issues causing these failures: the Hype Trap (lack of defined business problems), the Foundation Fallacy (neglecting data quality), and the Adoption Abyss (insights not being used in decision-making). To address these problems, the article introduces the RAPPID Value Lifecycle, a methodology focused on ensuring measurable commercial value from data investments. RAPPID mandates a business-first approach requiring clear value definition before execution and incorporates frameworks to ensure Data Trust and guarantee that insights are Embedded into daily workflows.

• Join the Data Innovators Exchange for free at https://www.skool.com/data-management-innovators-4116/about
• Sign up for the free Data Pro Newsletter at https://www.datapro.news/subscribe