The Data Engineering Team of the Future

By Matthew Scullion, CEO and Co-Founder, Matillion

AI is reshaping how organizations use data and revolutionizing how data teams work. In this series, Matillion’s executives share their perspectives on what it will take to lead in the AI era. 

From unlocking new revenue streams, to accelerating innovation cycles, to turning data into a competitive advantage, these are pragmatic insights from leaders building the future of data-driven business.

There’s a lot of talk today about AI replacing jobs, software engineers, copywriters, graphics designers, and even data engineers. But that’s not how I see it. AI isn’t about replacement; it’s about augmentation. It’s about extending human capability and amplifying the impact of every individual on your team.

Technologies like Maia, our team of agentic data engineers, can handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks, freeing engineers to focus on creative and high-value work that actually drives business impact.

Think of it like the printing press. Before it, writers had to manually duplicate their work for every reader. After it, they could focus on writing while the press scaled distribution. Agentic AI brings the same transformation to data engineering: once tedious, repetitive tasks can now be automated, allowing engineers to work smarter, not harder.

This shift makes the role of the data engineer more exciting and more leveraged. Instead of being constrained by manual workflows, engineers can now extend their capabilities, design more complex pipelines, and deliver higher-quality data faster than ever before.

With AI handling the grunt work, each data engineer can achieve five, ten, or even a hundred times more than before. It’s a moment to embrace change, lead innovation, and unlock new levels of productivity for data teams.

The future of data engineering is clear: by extending human capability rather than replacing it, AI empowers teams to move faster, make smarter decisions, and amplify the impact of data across the organization.

See Maia in action.