ServiceNow Podcasts TAKEAWAY - 2026 Trends in the data world with Tony Baer and Matt Housley
Jan 14, 2026
Tony Baer, an industry analyst known for his insights into data and AI, joins Matt Housley to explore key trends shaping the data landscape in 2026. They tackle the importance of semantics and ontology skills for AI's evolution and critique the prevalent 'magical thinking' around technology. The discussion highlights that bigger models don't equate to intelligence, and they emphasize the power of graphs in analysis. Their conversation is a call for practical understanding over hype, urging listeners to focus on the details that truly matter.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Prioritize Semantics And Modeling
- Use semantics and ontologies to build shared understanding around AI systems.
- Keep enterprise data modeling alive and prioritize common schemas for interoperability.
No Silver Bullet For AI
- There is no silver bullet in AI; scale isn't the same as intelligence.
- Real intelligence will be heterogeneous, combining agentic architectures, ontologies, and context.
Agentic Scaffolding And Model Diversity
- Agentic architectures add scaffolding around LLMs to make them deterministic when needed.
- Different model types will coexist: a few frontier models plus a long tail of specialized models.