We Love Ugly Data! The Deep Analysis Podcast - Episode 22 December 2024

We Love Ugly Data! The Deep Analysis Podcast

The twenty-second episode of the podcast that you know and love as "We Love Ugly Data!" is out; available in audio form everywhere you get your podcasts from and in video form via YouTube (which we've embedded below). This time, the format for our last episode of the year is slightly different, as both Alan and Dan join Matt to look back at the 2024 predictions and highlight 3 of the predictions from our 2025 report.

In this month's special episode, Alan, Dan, and Matt each get to reflect on their prediction from last year and pick out one of this year's to highlight:

Alan's 2025 Prediction: Structured data people will stop treating unstructured data like something that got stuck in their shoes.

First up, Alan reflects on his 2024 prediction, "Knowledge graphs and data meshes will gain traction," which, given all the discussion around enabling data for AI agents, he's giving himself a win (even though it's still a trend that's unfolding). This isn't unconnected to the 2025 prediction, which won't also allow unstructured data to come to the foreground in planning. Still, Alan reckons it will generate a wave of M&A activity as vendors scramble to find tools to fold into their products quickly.

Dan's 2025 Prediction: Intelligent document processing (IDP) companies must cross the border to grow.
Dan gives himself a thumbs up for his prediction of last year: "For the first time in human history, machines will read and process more documents than knowledge workers do," which isn't only likely accurate, it's pretty much impossible to disprove. Clever Dan. For 2025, he points out that for IDP companies to continue to grow, they will have to break out of their respective comfort zones and embrace a broader range of use cases and industries. Oh, and here, too, he's expecting a glut of M&A.

Matt's 2025 Prediction: The shift to “payment on outcome” is going to lead to some awkward conversations between customers and suppliers.

Matt recalls his 2024 prediction: "Generative AI will face its first cold winter.” He reckons it probably did as organizations weighed up the difficulties of making those assistant (Copilot) use cases work within their ways of working. But in 2025, amidst the wave of AI agents, it's the shift in how vendors look to alter their payment terms where Matt reckons there will be some ructions. Payments based on outcomes are a trend here, and while it's not the predominant way of charging (and probably won't ever be), Matt reckons aligning what each side believes success looks like will be a real challenge. The Salesforce statistic Matt mangled a bit in his recollection of the 2024 Dreamforce keynote was monthly numbers of 83.2 billion Flows being executed vs 112,000 prompts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmTqPX1BwsI

Show notes for Series 3, Episode 12.

Predictions Related Links
Here's our 2024 predictions podcast, so you can here past us making those predictions in full.
Our 2025 report in full!
Dan's extended blog on the 2025 IDP trends; Crossing the Border.
Here's Matt talkin

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