#data-governance

#data-governance

You can't outsource accountability, but many organizations are doing just that, often without even realizing it. This is especially the case when it comes to data. As businesses rely more heavily on third-party suppliers to store, move, and manage their data, the risk of something going wrong multiplies. Whether that's compliance, the ability to restore lost data, or susceptibility to cyber attack.

Who controls the data? Every meeting should be captured, but not every recording needs to be shared. Use private meeting settings, control access permissions, and set retention policies that auto-delete after a certain number of days. Who needs access? The power of AI is capturing everything. The responsibility is controlling who sees what. Share broadly for team updates, narrowly for performance reviews, not at all for sensitive discussions.

Governments are increasingly relying on data-intensive systems, both to wage wars and to administer public services. These systems, increasingly provided by the same firms using similar tools, will come to affect our day-to-day lives whether we are in war zones or town squares. This is the era of Militarisation of Tech. The technologies that our governments rely on to deliver services and pursue their objectives are becoming increasingly data-intensive and militarised, which threatens our privacy, dignity, and autonomy.

Regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA, GxP, GDPR and 21 CFR Part 11 are not optional; they are the guardrails that protect sensitive health data, ensure scientific integrity and maintain public trust in healthcare systems. Yet, I repeatedly observed that while these frameworks provided critical safeguards, they often slowed the momentum of digital transformation initiatives, particularly those involving artificial intelligence. Early AI projects faltered not because the models lacked accuracy or relevance, but because the underlying data architectures were not designed to satisfy regulators from the outset.

DOGE is an active component in the government. They meet on a regular basis. They are made up of professionals who have a mission,

Over the course of several years designing and delivering enterprise data platforms for a global pharmaceutical leader, I witnessed firsthand how data had evolved from a backend enabler to a frontline business asset. The organization was no longer just looking to report historical performance; it needed to predict outcomes, personalize patient engagement, customer engagement, brand performance and make regulatory decisions in near real time.

More than three million Californians are expected to lose health coverage in the next several years due to federal Medicaid cuts. At the same time, over half of Californians say they have skipped or delayed care because of rising costs -with nearly half in that group saying their health got worse as a result. As leaders of health organizations serving Alameda County, Santa Cruz and the Central Coast, we can say unequivocally that these are the two greatest health challenges we've faced since the pandemic:

Successful organizations aren't just aligning marketing and IT - they're building systems of collaboration that last.

The leap from chatbot to AI agent is not just about adding automation - it's about architectural transformation, embedding reasoning and action in context.

As I like to say, this path to agentic 'AI heaven' goes through some form of data hell, and that's the grim reality.