Richard Timperlake, SVP, EMEA at Confluent, outlines how strategic investments, overcoming legacy challenges, and a pivot in the direction of data-driven decision-making are positioning real-time information streaming platforms because the spine of tomorrow’s AI and enterprise innovation.
As we transfer into 2025, already we’re seeing thrilling issues happening on this planet of expertise. Knowledge, usually described because the lifeblood of AI, is turning into extra vital than ever, with real-time information streaming on the forefront of innovation and decision-making.
On the similar time, maintaining with these breakthroughs will be powerful. From the proposed ‘Stargate’ project in the US, to the UK Authorities’s AI Alternatives Motion Plan, the panorama is consistently altering — and companies want expertise that may accommodate that pace of change.
Enter: information streaming platforms (DSPs).
By delivering real-time insights and enabling swift motion, DSPs have gotten the important gasoline for the following stage of AI and computing developments, and so they sit on the core of my predictions for 2025.
1. Extra stability, extra funding…
With the macroeconomic and the geopolitical scenario reaching a extra steady place than this time final 12 months, organisations are actually feeling extra assured to make the mandatory investments in information and AI. And we’re already seeing this occurring.
Over the previous couple of months, many tech firms have taken the mandatory steps to put money into information. Trying again on day two of the brand new US presidency, we are able to see a world instance within the $500 billion deal between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle termed ‘Stargate’ — an immense funding into new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the USA.
Within the UK, we’ve additionally seen government-driven funding in AI following the launch of the Authorities’s AI Alternatives Plan. The very first suggestion within the plan is “a long-term plan for [the] UK’s AI infrastructure wants, backed by a 10-year funding dedication.”
Such steps will assist many organisations really feel empowered to take that subsequent step, investing additional in their very own AI and information to propel their enterprise and sustain with opponents.
2. There’ll nonetheless be some resistance within the adoption of recent applied sciences
The challenges of adopting new applied sciences nonetheless stay — and so they aren’t simply technical. Some sceptics nonetheless argue that ‘inserting all eggs within the AI and information basket’ is inherently dangerous.
AI-driven decision-making can lack the transparency of conventional strategies. Algorithms could make suggestions or automate duties with out the necessity for a human touchpoint. Over time, that is going to make AI a actuality for companies whether or not they undertake it or not — the superior analytics that AI-enabled opponents will profit from will see them more and more outperform their opponents.
Understandably, enterprise leaders and staff could also be hesitant to completely embrace AI in the event that they don’t have a transparent understanding of how these choices are being made. But it surely’s a resistance to a brand new regular that’s coming whether or not they prefer it or not.
Many companies, particularly these in industries like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, are nonetheless depending on standard strategies of processing information. Batch processing and rule-based decision-making showcase the restrictions of legacy methods that may’t all the time help trendy AI functions, regardless of being deeply embedded in organisational workflows and tradition.
With a purpose to keep aggressive and related of their trade, these companies have to undertake a DSP that can scale with the enterprise and allow real-time insights, decision-making and most critically give prospects the expertise they demand in right this moment’s world.
3. Knowledge streaming will develop into an important element within the UK’s race to develop into an AI superpower
As we’ve talked about, the UK Authorities’s AI Alternatives Motion Plan is particularly supposed to put the groundwork for the nation’s long-term AI future. Advice #49 is just ‘drive AI adoption throughout the entire nation’.
These plans embody initiatives that can require an unbelievable quantity of information, analysed and enriched in actual time. To develop into a actuality, DSPs should play a key position.
DSPs function the lifeline that constantly provides the AI ‘mind’ with high-quality, real-time information, enabling sooner, extra correct choices. As organisations put money into AI and information, higher funding in information streaming applied sciences and supporting infrastructure, akin to information centres and cloud suppliers, will likely be important to deal with the elevated calls for.
DSPs may also be on the forefront of breaking down many different boundaries. Many organisations nonetheless grapple with fragmented information trapped in siloed methods, accessible solely via advanced, code-heavy processes that hinder innovation and the power to reply in real-time. By adopting DSPs, organisations can combine and act on their information seamlessly, bettering agility.
4. Enterprise leaders might want to lean on data-driven decision-making
As AI makes information extra available, we are going to see many enterprise leaders lastly decide to a data-driven decision-making course of this 12 months.
Nearly all of companies are nonetheless working inside very tight monetary margins and success is determined by delivering the precise information to the precise individual on the proper time. As such, many selections are being made with out the entire information wanted to make a correctly knowledgeable resolution. In accordance with a current Confluent research, 90% of executives now have to make choices “in actual time,” but 52% say information is already outdated by the point it reaches the C-suite. Meaning greater than half (58%) of C-level leaders are compelled to depend on intestine intuition somewhat than information because of the issue of accessing dependable insights.
Normally, that’s because of the many challenges that firms face when making an attempt to unlock the total potential of their information. Fragmented methods and disconnected workflows incessantly stop decision-makers from accessing well timed insights, as do conventional batch processing strategies.
These obstacles spotlight the urgent want for real-time DSPs, which might remodel inaccessible information into actionable insights, and allow leaders to make sooner, extra knowledgeable choices.
Knowledge-streaming for all
As companies more and more undertake information streaming applied sciences — shifting past preliminary functions to gasoline deeper innovation — adoption is ready to speed up. In 2025, extra organisations will come to recognise DSPs as a vital cornerstone of contemporary enterprise success.
