EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

SANJAY DESHMUKH ,

SENIOR REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT , ASEAN AND INDIA , SNOWFLAKE

Enterprise AI is a key trend driving the need for AI data cloud platforms . Generative AI is revolutionising business operations by enabling enterprises to create and deploy innovative solutions rapidly . However , the effectiveness of these AI models is fundamentally dependent on the quality and management of the data they use .

A strong data foundation is crucial for ensuring that data is clean , reliable , accessible , and governable . This foundation enables organisations to break down data silos and ensure seamless data flow across departments and applications . In ASEAN and Singapore , companies are increasingly recognising the importance of this approach as they strive to make accurate predictions and informed decisions . With up to 90 % of data – such as videos , images , and documents – being unstructured , there is a significant opportunity to unlock value from these underutilised resources .

Data monetisation is another key trend in this evolving landscape . By leveraging platforms like Snowflake , organisations can transform their data into strategic assets . This involves not just internal optimisation but also creating new revenue streams through data products and services . Data collaboration across enterprises allows for the development of richer datasets , providing deeper insights and fostering innovation . Monetising data effectively requires a robust infrastructure that ensures data security , compliance , and governance , all while enabling seamless sharing and utilisation .

At the same time , ensuring data is protected for secure use is increasingly a priority for decision-makers . A recent Snowflake survey found that more organisations are using new features to tag and classify data so that

appropriate access and use policies can be applied .

What are the challenges faced by organisations when it comes to leveraging these technologies ?

There are four key challenges : rising complexity , increasing costs , how to build trust and a lack of skills .

The first challenge is the complexity of building , managing , owning and supporting the infrastructure needed to adopt these technologies . For example , an organisation may not have the capabilities to support and host the models , the GPU ’ s , the vector databases and all the other components required to build an AI application . Snowflake ’ s core design principle has been to simplify which enables wider adoption . Snowflake offers a fully managed AI platform with all the required components which helps the customers to eliminate complexity and they don ’ t have to invest time in stitching together various tools or managing the underlying infrastructure .

This also allows developers to leverage nearunlimited scalability and concurrency and streamlined data pipelines without the burden of site reliability engineering ( SRE )/ DevOps to launch new features faster with improved engineering efficiency .

This platform is offered as pay-per-use where you only pay for the actual consumption and it also comes with built-in cost management and performance optimisation . This helps shield organisations from unpredictable demand fluctuations associated with many AI platforms that result in cost spikes – meeting the second challenge of increasing costs .

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