Ways to Use Data for Driving AI Innovation

AI is only as powerful as the data it learns from. But raw data alone isn’t enough—it needs to be collected, processed, structured, and analyzed before it can drive meaningful AI applications.  How does data transform into AI-driven insights? Here’s the data journey that powers modern AI and analytics:  1. 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 – AI models need diverse inputs: structured data (databases, spreadsheets) and unstructured data (text, images, audio, IoT streams). The challenge is managing high-volume, high-velocity data efficiently.  2. 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 – AI thrives on accessibility. Whether on AWS, Azure, PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Amazon S3, scalable storage ensures real-time access to training and inference data.  3. 𝗘𝗧𝗟 (𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺, 𝗟𝗼𝗮𝗱) – Dirty data leads to bad AI decisions. Data engineers build ETL pipelines that clean, integrate, and optimize datasets before feeding them into AI and machine learning models.  4. 𝗔𝗴𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 – Data lakes and warehouses such as Snowflake, BigQuery, and Redshift prepare and stage data, making it easier for AI to recognize patterns and generate predictions.  5. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 – AI doesn’t work in silos. Well-structured dimension tables, fact tables, and Elasticube models help establish relationships between data points, enhancing model accuracy.  6. 𝗔𝗜-𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 – The final step is turning data into intelligent, real-time business decisions with BI dashboards, NLP, machine learning, and augmented analytics.  AI without the right data strategy is like a high-performance engine without fuel. A well-structured data pipeline enhances model performance, ensures accuracy, and drives automation at scale.  How are you optimizing your data pipeline for AI? What challenges do you face when integrating AI into your business? Let’s discuss.  

Two weeks ago, while I was off radar on LinkedIn. The concept of data readiness for AI hit me hard… Not just as a trend. But as a gap in how most professionals and organizations are approaching this AI race. I’ve been in this field for over a decade now ▸Working with data. ▸Teaching it. ▸Speaking about it. And what I’ve seen repeatedly is this: We’re moving fast with AI. But our data is not always ready. Most data professionals and organizations focus on: ✓ the AI model ✓ the use case ✓ the outcome But they often overlook the condition of the very thing feeding the system: the data. And when your data isn’t ready → AI doesn’t get smarter. → It gets scarier. → It becomes louder, faster... and wrong. But when we asked the most basic questions, ▸Where’s the data coming from? ▸Is it current? ▸Was it collected fairly? That’s when we show what we are ready for. That’s why I created the R.E.A.D. Framework. A practical way for any data leader or AI team to check their foundation before scaling solutions. The R.E.A.D. Framework: R – Relevance → Is this data aligned with the decision or problem you’re solving? → Or just convenient to use? E – Ethics → Who’s represented in the data and who isn’t? → What harm could result from using it without review? A – Accessibility → Can your teams access it responsibly, across departments and tools? → Or is it stuck in silos? D – Documentation → Do you have clear traceability of how, when, and why the data was collected? → Or is your system one exit away from collapse? AI is only as strong as the data it learns from. If the data is misaligned, outdated, or unchecked, → your output will mirror those flaws at scale. The benefit of getting it right? ✓ Better decisions ✓ Safer systems ✓ Greater trust ✓ Faster (and smarter) innovation So before you deploy your next AI tool, pause and ask: Is our data truly ready or are we hoping the tech will compensate for what we haven’t prepared?

Data flywheels accelerate AI product development and create competitive advantages along the way. Here’s the strategy NVIDIA and Microsoft use to deliver highly reliable AI products faster. Data flywheels are a critical component of AI product design that take advantage of a unique property of AI platforms. Contextual data improves models, and every time a user does work on a platform, they generate data with the context of a workflow. A data flywheel is a self-reinforcing cycle where the collection and analysis of data lead to continuous improvements in products or services, attracting more users who generate additional data, which perpetuates the cycle or flywheel. Here’s how it works in practice ▶️ 1️⃣ Identify a Specific Problem: Focus on a workflow that data and models can support in a way that current technical solutions don’t. 2️⃣ Gather Contextual Data: Engineer access to the workflow to gather data in the context of tasks, decisions, and outcomes. 3️⃣ Analyze the Data: Extract actionable insights about the workflow from the contextual data and identify opportunities for improvement that deliver new value to customers or users. 4️⃣ Implement Improvements: Use the contextual data to introduce analytics to the workflow and train reliable models that improve how the AI product supports the workflow. 5️⃣ Generate More Contextual Data: As improvements are implemented, they lead to increased usage or engagement, resulting in the collection of more data, which feeds back into the cycle. Netflix's recommendation system improved through a data flywheel. Initially, Netflix recommended the same popular videos to all users. Analyzing individual viewing habits allowed Netflix to retrain its models to offer more personalized suggestions. Personalization prevented churn and increased the time people spent watching Netflix, generating additional data that further improved the recommendation models’ accuracy, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement. Data flywheels lead to arena learning or learning via simulations. Both Microsoft and NVIDIA have shown the power of this paradigm. Expect more companies to follow their lead.