(US and Canada) Chris Lynch, Executive Chairman and CEO, AtScale, talks with Robert Lutton, Vice President, Sandhill Consultants, about improving enterprise decision-making and how it will be used 5-10 years from now

Lynch believes that organizational decision making will follow other technologies’ footsteps as new technology is introduced. It is often a fragmented technology that is applied to industry, and it matures at that point. Finally, those industries absorb the technology and figure out how to implement it in their internal stacks and businesses.

So, Lynch believes AI and machine learning will be embedded in all enterprise applications, fueling all of them. He thinks that every keyboard that’s touched, every screen being looked at three to five years from now, will be driven by AI. But that won’t be evident because AI will be packaged internally in those applications, as opposed to the usage of the data robot model.

Lynch also mentions the Snowflake data robot, Starbucks, and the massive valuations and IPOs. Typically, people witness 10- to 15-year "overnight" successes and just see the tip of the iceberg. However, it took many years of insight, hard work, effort, and vision to build Snowflake, Databricks, and Starbucks and accomplish what they have today.

He believes they’re being rewarded in the market. But, again, it’s a sector investment, sector value. Astute investors recognize that the future is Data, and they’re making their bets on the cloud-based analytic companies that can deliver. Investors are looking at companies like Snowflake, Databricks, Starbucks (the next generation of companies), and are taking advantage of the cloud infrastructure laid out for the last 10 years and monetizing it. They’re being rewarded for that, based on growth. They’re also thinking about the long-term potential of Data and how it will impact business and society in general.

Lynch also shared why he firmly believes that Boston is the Data talent hub: the city has 35 universities in 10 square miles. So, the density of smart young people entering the workforce every year is unsurpassed. Other factors aiding Boston as a tech hub? Geographic proximity, reasonable time zone, reasonable cost of living, and lifestyle.