Is BI Dead? Why Hex Hit Reset and Rewrote Everything for the AI Agent Era w/ Barry McCardel (CEO Hex)

Traditional drag-and-drop BI is facing an existential crisis. In this live fireside chat at Hex Prompt, I sit down with Barry McCardel (Co-founder & CEO of Hex), right as Hex announces a major pivot: Hex 4.0, a ground-up architectural rewrite built for a world where AI agents write code and traditional dashboards are turning into sand.Barry breaks down the hard realities facing data teams today:- Why wrapping legacy platforms in "agent harnesses" hit diminishing returns - How "vibe coding" across the enterprise is breaking the old centralized BI model - Why the future of analytics isn't drag-and-drop UI, but code with guardrails, context, and observability - The real KPIs modern data teams should track (eval pass rates vs. raw activity) - The emerging challenge of "cognitive surrender" when stakeholders stop critically evaluating data Whether you are an analytics engineer, data analyst, or data platform leader, this conversation offers an unfiltered look at what it takes to adapt when AI shifts the underlying substrate of data work from UI to code.