2025 - Talking about Data, Analytics and AI

My presentations and talks in review

It’s part of my job to regularly present on events, in internal formats or for customers about current and relevant topics. I tried to pick the one slide from each presentation which matters most for me. Let’s see what mattered in 2025.

My focus was on modern data strategy, Data Products, and evolving data architecture - especially how concepts like Data Mesh, Data Fabric, and AI reshape collaboration, governance, and value creation.

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Kicked off the year in February at the BARC event “The Future of SAP Data & Analytics where I prepared slides about the SAP Data & Analytics Advisory Methodology and how we can extend on it with our experience in Data Strategy consulting.

Fig. 1: BARC Event Die Zukunft von SAP Data & Analytics (The Future of SAP Data & Analytics)

Also in February I did what we call a Data Performance Appetizer, where we meet as a company on Friday morning and talk 15 minutes about experiences to give impulses. In this customer case I showed how important collaboration and coordination is as a data team. I wrote the article “Data Strategy - You are not alone!“ based on the same experience.

Fig. 2: You don’t have to lift the weight of a data strategy execution on your own

My colleagues regularly organize Data & AI Meetups in different cities (Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart). I presented in March in Stuttgart about “Data Products - Vision and Reality”. I tried to show that the idea of a Data Product is not new but how we do it has changed from a rather general approach to a highly methodical strategy for data value.

Fig. 3: Data Products - there is typically not the one understanding and the concept is still evolving

The event data:unplugged is a rising event format growing fast. Together with my colleagues Daniel Eiduzzis and Carsten Broeker we talked about “The Future Data Stack - From Modern Data Stack to Data Products and AI”, showing how modern data architecture needs to look like and that technology is just one side of the idea.

See also “The Future Data Stack”

Fig. 4: For the right Data Architecture, the context, users and their potential to make use of data has to be considered

In April 2025 I was invited to Almato DevCon a subsidiary event of my former employer. They heavily focussed on AI and I showed a customer case transforming a self-service process and it’s challenges into an AI-driven experience. My presentation was “AI for Data & Data for AI - Be ahead with the right approach”

Fig. 5: Self-Service in Data & Analytics is not always as easy as we expect.

I described this transformation and different aspects in my article “Self-Service Data & Analytics”. Additionally I had a second chance to show and discuss the case internally in July during our Data Performance Appetizer, as AI 4 Data is a huge topic at the moment. AI can bring a lot of advancements to current Self-Service processes but will never replace the human factor.

Fig. 6: Augmenting Self-Service with AI 4 Data to solve classical challenges

In June 2025 I participated at a Panel talk organized by BARC during the Big Data & AI World in Frankfurt about Data Mesh - “Unmeshing Data Mesh - Evolving the Framework for Modern Data Needs”. As there are no slides, in preparation we formulated some statements for the discussion.

Fig. 7: Talking during a panel about the current state of Data Mesh with other experts in the field

In July I did another Data Performance Appetizer internally, talking about to “Scale Up your Knowledge” with such a classical method like reading books. I compared different books about Data Mesh and my personal recommendation is “Data Mesh in Action” shown here. I like the book for it’s holistic and architecture-oriented approach.

Fig. 8: Reading books is still important for the learning process - but where to start?

For a customer in the pharmaceutical industry we did a lot of preparation to introduce them into the Data Product topic. In July we started a journey with the customer discussing concepts like data marketplace and operating model around establishing Data Products. The slide shows some areas we offered to support from our experience.

Fig. 9: Data Product Portfolio - Concept & Project Perspective

Sometimes it even happens that we prepare for a customer event but it never take place for several reasons. At this event I was planned to have a talk about “Data Contracts as Central Element of Data Products”. I took a customer example to show the architectural context and the application of Data Contracts and the distribution of metadata.

Fig. 10: Data Contracts can put context and metadata to where the data is with data products, delivering a source of truth for metadata to be used by other contexts.

In September 2025 I had a short travel to my local Ulmer Data Science Stammtisch. It’s my local Meetup, restartet this year after a longer break. I talked about “Data Mesh & Data Fabric - Optimal support for analytics & AI - with the right architectural approach“. I covered especially complex data architecture patterns and their meaning in current AI concepts.

Fig. 11: The current rise of Agentic AI will also influence what future data architecture need to deliver

Again in September we talked with our pharmaceutical industry customer about approaches to scale the implementation of a Data Product Ecosystem. This is more the organizational level and how to bring in efficiency in such an approach.

Fig. 12: Fields of Action for Scaling Data Products

In October 2025 we published out latest Whitepaper about SAP Business Data Cloud (in german). It’s always a lot of discussion and a process together with my colleagues Jonas Holthuysen, Maurice Rummel and colleagues from SAP like Gordon Witzel and Andreas Scholl. The Whitepaper should give you an overview about potential, use cases and a possible way forward with SAP’s latest data platform.

Fig. 13: A look inside our Whitepaper about SAP Business Data Cloud

It’s always interesting to visit the SAP headquarter for a Sofa Talk by SAP. This was my second run and again an interesting experience. My colleague Jonas Holthuysen wrapped up (in german) all of our sessions, done by Maurice Rummel talked about Enterprise Planning and Ken Höfel talked about implementation experience. Base was our whitepaper about “SAP Business Data Cloud“

Fig. 14: Sofa Talk by SAP about SAP Business Data Cloud

My colleague Ömer Sahin and I had the opportunity to present at the Bosch Analytics Day, a global, customer internal event where typically internal ideas and actions around Data, Analytics and AI are discussed. Therefore it was a special honor to present “Microsoft and SAP - Strong solutions, even better together“. We introduced the current tech stacks for Data, Analytics and AI with SAP and Microsoft, showed advantages and disadvantages and brought it together in an architectural approach shown here. Interestingly on day before Microsoft and SAP announced a zero copy integration, enhancing some of the options possible today.

Fig. 16: Architectural approach to create synergies while using SAP and Microsoft data stacks together

Our own Data Performance Day is a great event inviting customers and prospects to see what is really happening in the market. We present mainly together with out customers about common experiences. I had the opportunity to present with my colleage Benjamin Kaiser about “Turning Data into Products - A Collibra Success Story”. Where we showed different customer experiences and how the Data Product approach helped to bring Data Governance and Data Performance together.

Fig. 17: Data Products can bring Data Performance more directly into Data Governance for a performance-oriented governance approach

I planned the publishing of this article in this way, that I should stand in front of my colleagues with my last presentation for this year. In our internal Competence Day I’m sharing experiences about a Data Catalog selection process done with a customer. I want to highlight the following slide, showing the feedback from business departments participating in sessions with different vendors. To hit the need and get commitment, to involve the business is an essential part of such a journey.

Fig. 18: Business feedback from a selection process about 2 possible data catalog solutions

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Writing all this together it feels like I wouldn’t do anything else the whole year, except maybe writing here on Substack (around 50 articles in 2025). Overall I did a lot of presentations and talks in 2025 compared to earlier years. My job is not in product management or sales. I work mainly as a consultant in projects around Data Strategy & Architecture with customers. And while doing such presentations is always a chance to bring together learnings and dive deeper into a topic, it is not my main task. So let’s see what happens in 2026.

Topics I focus on in 2026 will be Data Governance, AI for Data Governance, how AI enhance Data Catalogs (especially but not limited to Collibra) and Data Products Platforms. Additionally I work with my colleagues from SAP and AI in general.

Two Talks about, Data Governance & Data Products and SAP Business Data Cloud & Agentic AI are already planned. Additionally I had talks about some podcasts (it seems to be the format for 2025/2026), let’s see.

I’m sure, also in 2026 the one or other presentation and experience will find it’s way to Substack😊 Stay tuned!