Data engineers have never been more important, and businesses are starting to find out

"Three-quarters of business leaders increasingly believe data engineers - those who manage databases and extract information for actionable insights - are now integral to the success of their company, according to a survey from MIT Technology Review and Snowflake. That rises to 86% for the largest companies with revenue over $10bn, the survey found. "Senior leadership is quickly realizing that if they're not using data in their decision-making processes, they risk lagging behind their competitors," said Chris Child, VP of product data engineering at Snowflake."

"In a post detailing the survey results, Child noted he saw two trends contributing to the increasingly prominent profile of data engineers. "The first is the sheer volume of information being generated and made available today - a function of data being easier to collect and cheaper to store than ever before," Child wrote. "The second is a growing realization among top executives that without using data to inform decisions, their organizations are essentially flying blind. This is driving demand for AI to enable the use of data in more and more complex decisions than ever before,""

"Indeed, the survey found that the amount of time spent by data engineers on AI projects has doubled from 19% of their day in 2023 to 37% this year - and those polled expect that to hit 61% of their work day within two years. But they're not just putting work into AI, however, and data engineers are also getting a benefit."

Three-quarters of business leaders now view data engineers as integral to company success, rising to 86% at firms with over $10bn revenue. Executives increasingly demand data-driven decision-making to avoid falling behind competitors, driving organizations to adopt AI for more complex decisions. Two main factors accelerate the trend: vastly increased volumes of cheaply stored data and executive recognition of data’s strategic necessity. Data engineers are spending substantially more time on AI projects—19% to 37% year-over-year, projected to reach 61%—and many report that AI has boosted team output and improved work quality while workloads continue to grow.

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