<p><em><strong>NOTE - Sorry for the edits in this video. I used Descript to edit out the umms and uhhs, and it was a bit too aggressive. Will make it less jarring in future videos. Thanks.</strong></em></p><p>Freestyle Friday, May 15, 2026</p><p>Walking around Salt Lake City and unpacking the April 2026 data modeling survey results (334 respondents). Across three surveys now: January&#39;s State of Data Engineering (1,100), March&#39;s AI usage poll (193), and April&#39;s data modeling deep-dive. Not surprisingly, the same two pain points keep surfacing: time pressure and lack of clear ownership.90% of respondents have a data modeling pain point. When asked what would actually help, only 4.8% wanted better tools. Training, business requirements, time, and ownership crushed tooling in the rankings. </p><p>Will AI improve things or make them worse? Time will tell...Also covered:</p><ul><li>Why physical data modeling has become the default (and why that&#39;s a problem)</li><li>Data modeling vs. schema design - they&#39;re not the same thing</li><li>Semantic layers (yay or nay?), Lloyd Tabb, and Malloy</li><li>Conway&#39;s Law, Reis&#39;s Law, and what changes when org charts get flattened by AI</li><li>Why leadership is under more pressure than ever</li><li>The June half-year survey is coming</li></ul><p>🎙️ SPONSORS</p><p>Fivetran - stop cobbling pipelines together. Set it, forget it, scale as you grow.→ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbXl5VktXNEg3ZHNXMWhmRlZRYy1rWHpsNUJTd3xBQ3Jtc0trLUVDdDlfYVV3VmctZExFMlA5WUFFOFZwX05aMkVxX3dlTDgtNDZwWlBNbXgyZzQyWjdwOS10c2lacmt2Ymt3SFNqdHh0VVNlMy1CejNXOUZpT0pPR0ptR1hNSmozMlBPNnppU2VKY0dZUndPUWpIdw&q=https%3A%2F%2Ffivetran.com%2F&v=AKoZ6C5KDJU" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://fivetran.com</a></p><p>Revify - surprise Snowflake bills? One customer cut theirs 50% in 48 hours.→ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEVLWGpoY3o2cFNMSDYxQVVrc3ZOQUlwaTVyZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttbnlNeWl2TzRjd3VLTEZRX19VWl82ZU04enVEVDNvZFlkN185VUdZcklSczN2OUdYRnozdGp3S25ZbFVKQ1ZOV25LeEJaY2x0Y3VQUEE5dDdINHR6bUY1bENJYW9HRTBtVHZOdk8yVHpRT0RjamZMRQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Frevify.com%2Fdemo&v=AKoZ6C5KDJU" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://revify.com/demo</a><br></p>