by Robert Kramer
opinionMay 18, 20267 mins
For years, enterprise data conversations centered on platforms. Which warehouse? Which lakehouse? Which cloud? In my recent Forbes pieces, “Beyond The Enterprise Data Platform: Why Ecosystems Win” and “How ERP Data Fits Into The Enterprise Data Ecosystem,” I argued that the more important question is no longer which platform wins. It is how the enterprise designs the ecosystem around data, applications, workflows, and governance.
That question is becoming more urgent because AI agents are starting to act on enterprise data, not just analyze it. They are recommending actions, triggering workflows, engaging customers, and influencing decisions at a speed where manual review cannot be the only control. That changes the role of data management. Clean, governed, and trusted data is no longer a back-office requirement. It determines whether artificial intelligence can operate within the business without creating more risk than value.
That is the lens for Informatica World 2026. The event should not just be about new data management features. The test is whether Informatica can show how governed data, master data, activation, agent decisioning, and workflow execution come together in real enterprise environments. The bigger story is not another integration. It is whether Informatica and Salesforce can help enterprises close the gap between trusted data and decisions the business can act on.
