The Joe Reis Show Dashboards vs. Agents: Navigating the New Era of BI and Analytics with Mike Driscoll
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Feb 4, 2026 Mike Driscoll, founder of Rill Data and longtime data practitioner from computational biology to BI, discusses the comeback of semantic layers and why governed metrics matter. He explores how AI agents change data needs, the role of fast materialized analytics and temporal watermarks, and whether conversational interfaces will complement or replace dashboards.
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Semantic Layer Is Core For Agentic Analytics
- The rise of AI agents renewed demand for semantic layers to document table and column meanings.
- Agents need semantics, speed, and verifiability to produce trustworthy analytics.
Materialize And Cite For Fast, Verifiable Answers
- Materialize important data and optimize engines to keep agent conversations fast and usable.
- Provide citations and provenance so agents' answers can be verified by humans.
Time Semantics Break Conversations
- Time semantics are deceptively complex and break many agent queries.
- Anchoring relative ranges to watermarks is necessary for correct business time windows.
