Weekly

The Brief

One email a week: the four analytics stories that mattered, tool moves, one how-to, one number.

  • Four stories that mattered, not forty
  • Tool launches, pricing changes and acquisitions
  • One how-to you can use this week
  • One number worth knowing
  • Every story linked to its source
  • Sponsors, if there are ever any, always labelled

Past issues

Week of 14 September 2026 — agents get a standards body, and a governance testSeptember 22, 2026
The Gates Foundation joins the group governing MCP and agent standards, HubSpot and OpenAI push into ad attribution, and import prices jump.
Week of 7 September 2026 — governed agents and a stickier CPISeptember 22, 2026
Alteryx ties AI agents to governed business logic, Delaware tightens its privacy law, and August inflation came in hotter than July.
Week of 31 August 2026 — DuckDB joins AWS, and the case for context engineeringSeptember 22, 2026
AWS completes its purchase of DuckLabs, a BARC study links "context engineering" to AI success, and August's jobs and aging data land.
Week of 24 August 2026 — record fines, record data volumesSeptember 22, 2026
Meta settles child-safety claims for up to $18B, Salesforce reports record Data Cloud volumes, and ISG says AI is moving analytics from reporting to action.
Week of 17 August 2026 — the cost of letting the algorithm decideSeptember 22, 2026
Uber was fined €825M for automated driver deactivation, the FTC proposed personalized-pricing rules, and ANA moved on retail media measurement.
Week of 10 August 2026 — Databricks' $5B round, and the gap between AI spend and AI readinessSeptember 22, 2026
Databricks raised $5B at a $190B valuation, Alteryx found half of IT leaders can't get business context into AI, and a new Dutch cyber law took effect.
Week of 3 August 2026 — Washington turns to AI pricing and hiring, platforms turn to AI governanceSeptember 22, 2026
A Senate hearing targeted AI pricing, a new framework covers AI hiring tools, Databricks GA'd its AI governance gateway, and Palantir's revenue jumped 93%.
Week of 27 July 2026 — the EU's AI rules shift, and vendors race to make analytics conversationalSeptember 22, 2026
The EU's AI Omnibus took effect, Nielsen and DataBahn pushed AI deeper into measurement and data pipelines, and HBR warned AI can scale bad analysis faster.
Week of 20 July 2026 — Snowflake goes agentic, DataRobot bets on sovereigntySeptember 22, 2026
Snowflake ships an agentic control plane and CoCo GA, DataRobot leans into sovereign AI, and the EU's AI Act amendments hit the Official Journal.
Week of 13 July 2026 — Databricks pauses Genie billing and signs a $188bn roundSeptember 22, 2026
Databricks freezes Genie charges, lines up funding at a $188bn valuation, Anaconda buys Kilo Code, and June's CPI drops sharply.
Week of 6 July 2026 — the EDPB defines anonymous, Actian folds in JaspersoftSeptember 22, 2026
EDPB adopts anonymisation and AI-scraping guidelines, Actian completes its Jaspersoft deal, and Connecticut's privacy law expands.
Week of 29 June 2026 — the EU softens its AI Act as Anthropic ships Claude Sonnet 5September 22, 2026
The EU Council waters down AI Act deadlines, Anthropic launches Claude Sonnet 5, and Databricks previews sub-second SQL.