The Thought Leader: Where Industry Meets Insight – What’s Next in Data and AI

Stay ahead in data and AI! Get ready for a new, power-packed edition of The Thought Leader, ThoughtSpot's monthly LinkedIn newsletter, delivering fresh insights, cutting-edge milestones, and key upcoming events.

✨ AI Appreciation Day: How Spotters Are Powering Up with AI

At ThoughtSpot, AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a daily accelerator. Across teams and roles, Spotters are using AI to unlock insights, supercharge productivity, and spark creativity in ways that are both practical and powerful.

To celebrate #AIAppreciationDay, our team shared personal reflections on how AI has impacted their lives and work. From playful experimentation to mission-critical applications, these stories show just how diverse and human the AI journey can be.

🎥 Watch: Stephen (Steffin) Harris , North American Field Chief Data & AI Officer, shares a powerful story from the World Economic Forum about the importance of diverse training data and the role of human validation in building trustworthy AI. In his words, “AI doesn’t replace us—it reflects us.” See how he uses ThoughtSpot’s agentic analytics platform and Spotter to build a loop of continuous human + machine learning.

• Don't let AI bias impact your trust. Just like Stephen Harris, understand how to overcome it: Check out our recent webinar on preventing AI bias and hallucinations!

💡 Other standout AI moments from our team:

• James Smith , VP EMEA: AI as an unexpected creative partner, helping him write a touching (and funny) birthday poem for his mom.
• Jane Smith , Field Chief Data & AI Officer, EMEA: Leading young students through AI experiments, hallucinations and all.
• Cindi Howson , Chief Data & AI Strategy Officer: From early machine learning models to today’s genAI breakthroughs, Cindi reflects on how far AI has come—and how much further it can go.

These stories are a testament to how far AI has come and how much more exciting it gets!

📊 Product Innovations

We're constantly enhancing ThoughtSpot to deliver unparalleled insights:

• Introducing Muze: ThoughtSpot’s Native Visualization Engine! Meet the development team behind ThoughtSpot's native visualization engine, Muze. In our latest developer blog, Bhargav Addala and Ujjal Kumar Dutta explain where the idea for Muze originated, its unique design principles, architecture, and what it helps you achieve.

What sets Muze apart?

• Composable layers allow you to build intricate, multi-faceted charts with ease.
• Rich data operators support powerful transformations, enabling dynamic interactions and fast rendering.
• Custom interactions are driven by a physical interaction model, giving you granular control over how users engage with data.
• Fully customizable visuals with style sheets and CSS-level control let you create on-brand, on-point visual experiences.
• Centralized data control ensures a consistent, trustworthy source of truth across all visualizations.
• WebAssembly-powered performance makes Muze capable of handling large datasets smoothly.
• Seamless integration with apps or custom UIs through easily dispatched actions.

Muze isn’t just a visualization engine—it’s a foundational layer for building rich, responsive, and reliable analytics experiences.

➡️ Get the full story here.

🗓️ Event Recaps

June was a busy month for connecting with data and AI leaders worldwide. Here’s a look back at some highlights:

• Agentic Analytics Summit: The #AI revolution is undeniably here! At our Agentic Analytics Summit, we explored how ThoughtSpot and Spotter are empowering users to effortlessly ask questions of data, transforming insights into action. Thought leaders discussed how our tools empower users to crystallize their work and how ThoughtSpot Embedded differentiates in the market.

We had some incredibly insightful panels/guests for this summit, including:

• "Panel: Embedded Analytics – Insights, Embedded Effortlessly" We featured Craig Haughan ( CWT ), John Readman 🚴♂️ 🎙💻 ( ASK BOSCO® ), and Mariia Vaill ( Zencargo ) as they unpacked how embedded analytics was transforming workflows, bringing real-time insights right where the action was. It was less dashboard-hopping, more decision-making. 💡⚡️🔥
• "How to Empower Your People to Become Agent Bosses" In this no-fluff session, Stephanie Gradwell (Managing Partner at Pendle LLP & Top 20 Women in Data 2025) joined Greg Freeman , CEO of Data Literacy Academy , to break down how to prepare teams to lead in the age of AI agents. Because when it came to Agentic AI, data literacy wasn’t optional — it was your foundation. 📚🧠🏢
• Ricoh Europe : From Traditional to Transformational. We saw how Ricoh Europe was reshaping their business with AI with Nathan Thomas and Simon Butt — transitioning to a SaaS model and embedding intelligence into their product suite. Innovation in action. 🔧📈🎙️
• The evolving role of data teams - Kyle Winterbottom ( Orbition Group ), Aimee Smith ( Metropolitan Police ), and McKinley Muir Hyden ( Financial Times ) dove into The Future of Data Teams in an AI World — what changed, what stayed, and what it meant for YOU.
• If you couldn't make it live, watch the full online replay here.

• Agentic AI Executive Briefing in Sydney: We recently gathered with data and AI leaders in Sydney to explore how Agentic AI is reshaping enterprise decision-making. Bhargav Addala delivered a compelling keynote on why Agentic AI is becoming a strategic imperative, while Stuart Rees led a dynamic panel on what it takes to operationalize AI at scale. The key takeaway: Traditional BI is no longer enough. Leaders are turning to agentic analytics to enable systems that don’t just inform—they act. To support this shift, organizations are rethinking their architecture, leaning into connected, flexible ecosystems built for scale.

• "Embed: Turning Insights into Revenue" Dinner in Austin: We hosted 18 dynamic customers, prospects, and partners for an evening designed to spark true transformation. Mark Gorman from Dealerware shared their compelling journey with ThoughtSpot on supercharging sales effectiveness, followed by Bryant Howell 's brilliant live demo bringing Agentic and embedded analytics to life.
• Ready to turn insights into revenue like our guests at the "Embed" dinner? Learn how embedding analytics and AI into your product has never been easier! Register for our live 30-minute session covering connecting to cloud data, natural language search, generative AI, AI-created Liveboards, and customizations.

• HMR Empower Day: Last week, HMR - Health Market Research 's Empower Day truly showcased AI's transformative power in the pharmaceutical industry! ThoughtSpot was thrilled to be a key part of this forward-thinking event, highlighting our powerful partnership in using ThoughtSpot within Haia and sharing a compelling vision for the future. Manuel Marco delivered a powerful live demo of Spotter, and Jane Smith offered a compelling vision of Agentic AI. The message is loud and clear: Pharma + AI = unstoppable!

• CDO Magazine Chicago Leadership Dinner: We joined 36 of Chicago's top data, analytics, and AI leaders to unveil strategic maneuvers for success in today's data-driven world. Discussions included fortifying data foundations for GenAI, balancing governance and innovation, and real-world AI case studies. It was fantastic to see our ThoughtSpot team so well represented among these senior data, analytics, and AI leaders. Real-world AI case studies and adoption strategies. Feat. Chris D. , Kevin Hollahan , Nicole B. , Mark McKenna , and Adam Chetkowski.

🏆 Awards & Recognition

We’re proud to see ThoughtSpot’s innovation and culture earning industry recognition!

• EOG Tech Awards Finalist – Nominated for Most Innovative Data Visualisation Tool by Energy, Oil & Gas Magazine . Believe data should be a conversation? So do we. 👉 Vote before July 28
• Asia FinTech Awards Nominee – Celebrating our partner FrankieOne’s nomination, powered in part by ThoughtSpot’s flexible, modern analytics platform.
• Best Place to Work in Data & AI Finalist – Honored by DataIQ for our bold, AI-driven culture where Spotters thrive.

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