From Fractured Data to Connected Insights: Lessons from the Data Management Summit

It was fantastic to deliver the closing keynote at the Data Management Summit London yesterday. I’m thrilled to see Knowledge Graphs finally hitting the mainstream of data management!

In my talk, I confronted an uncomfortable truth: most organisations' data remains fractured, fragmented, and scattered across silos, systems, and spreadsheets.

I emphasised that an organisation’s success with AI depends directly on the depth, richness, connectivity, and quality of its data. Without solving this fundamental issue of data connectivity, organisations risk not just falling behind - but potentially being wiped out - as AI integrates into every aspect of how we operate.

To thrive in this new era, we must move beyond industrial-age, box-shaped thinking and embrace network-based approaches.

That’s why Knowledge Graphs are crucial. They model not only data but also its deeper meaning and relationships, using simple yet powerful structures called triples: subject, predicate, object. This provides AI with the semantic foundation it needs to generate precise, actionable insights.

I also introduced DPROD, the open semantic standard we’ve developed to help organisations describe and manage data products in a connected, meaningful way.

My core message was clear: organisations must discover and define their ontological core - the unique concepts that represent who they are - in a logically rigorous way.

As I concluded:

💡 Your ontology isn’t just a schema. It identifies and distils the most meaningful concepts in your business by formally defining what those concepts really mean💡

In a world where intelligence becomes both ubiquitous and cheap, it’s meaning that matters most!

Thanks to everyone who attended and engaged - I had loads of brilliant conversations.

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/data-management-insight/