Achieving AI ROI with Agentic AI: From Data Foundations to Enterprise Deployment
Webinar Speaker: Fern Halper, TDWI VP Research, Senior Research Director for Advanced Analytics
Date: Thursday, January 22, 2026
Time: 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET
Many organizations are beginning to explore agentic AI to automate tasks and operationalize workflows. TDWI research finds that at least one-third of organizations we survey are already investigating agentic AI. Yet for most enterprises, the bigger challenge is not the agents themselves, it is understanding the end-to-end process required to deliver agentic AI applications that are trustworthy, scalable, and capable of driving real business value.
Join TDWI VP of research, Fern Halper, and Snowflake’s senior director, product marketing - AI, Santiago Giraldo, as they examine what it actually takes to build and operationalize transparent agents in the enterprise. The discussion will focus on the foundational work that enables AI ROI, including how organizations procure and prepare data, eliminate silos, and build reliable data pipelines through modern data engineering practices.
Topics include:
- The current state of agentic AI
- The end-to-end workflow for delivering agentic AI applications, from data procurement to business deployment
- How data engineering, pipelines, and semantic layers underpin scalable and explainable agents
- What it takes to operationalize agentic AI responsibly and realize measurable business value
Guest Speaker
Santiago Giraldo
Sr. Director, Product Marketing | AI
Snowflake
Santiago is a technology and GTM leader with 15+ years of experience successfully bringing enterprise data platform and AI products to global markets. Currently leading product marketing and GTM for Snowflake's AI and ML products, Santiago not only loves solving complex problems — both technical and business oriented — but also helping people and business understand how cutting-edge emerging technologies will shape the future of work and play.
Fern Halper, Ph.D.
VP and Sr. Research Director
TDWI
Fern Halper, Ph.D., is VP of TDWI Research. Her work focuses on AI, generative AI, agentic AI, AI governance, cloud computing, and other modern analytics approaches. She has more than 25 years of experience in data and business analysis and AI and has published numerous articles on data mining and information technology. Halper is co-author of “Dummies” books on cloud computing, hybrid cloud, and service management, as well as Big Data for Dummies. Halper is also the author of the 2026 book, Data Makes the World Go ’Round: The data, tech, and trust behind AI success. She has been a partner at industry analyst firm Hurwitz & Associates and a lead analyst for Bell Labs. She has taught at both Colgate University and Bentley University. Her Ph.D. is from Texas A&M University. You can reach her by email ([email protected]) or LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/fbhalper).