Reliable by design: Lower cost, better delivery, trusted AI

Every data team is under pressure to cut warehouse spend, ship faster, and get ready for AI, often all at once. The teams that pull it off aren't the ones with the most tools. They're the ones who built reliability in from the start.

Guitar Center's VP of Data shares how a lean enterprise team built a data foundation on dbt and Airflow that holds up at scale. Real practices, real tradeoffs, and what actually moved the needle.

Three pillars anchor the talk. Reliable costs, through guardrails and observability that keep warehouse spend predictable. Reliable delivery, through orchestration and engineering practices that cut fires and operational drag. Reliable, trusted data, the foundation that makes AI and self-service analytics work rather than amplify bad data.

You'll leave knowing how to prioritize foundations over tool sprawl, and how a lean team punches above its weight.