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Newsletter - June 2026
Recap on the latest news from DAMA UK
It’s safe to say it’s been a warm month, and not the easiest conditions for getting things done.
And much like the weather, things in the world of data and AI are feeling a little under pressure. In this month’s newsletter, we explore how governance is being stretched as AI moves from experimentation into scale and what happens when organisations try to keep pace without the right foundations in place.
We explore whether or not Data Governance should evolve to subsume AI governance, and why initiatives stall when ownership sits too narrowly within IT. We also take a look at how data catalogues are no longer passive inventories and are becoming “read-write execution engines”.
Plus, we have a new DAMA UK article to dive into! Scroll down to find out more.
The Crossroads of Data Governance and AI Governance
“Should data governance evolve to subsume AI governance? Or is AI governance a distinct discipline that directs data governance, with new stakeholders, new risks, and AI dictating data requirements rather than the other way around?”
Colin Hardie offers some brilliant insights on the crossroads data governance has found itself within the emergence of AI governance.
Why Data Governance Still Matters Before Scaling AI
You can't have good AI without good data governance… or can you?
Fouad Talaouit suggests you can build AI on messy data. Organisations already do it all the time in isolated proof-of-concepts (PoCs). But what is NOT recommended is pushing AI to operate at scale and at speed across an organisation that doesn't understand its own data.
Yes, issues tend to arise when companies buy into the idea of data governance, yet nothing gets deployed. This, which usually goes hand in hand with the issue of nobody owning the standards and subsequent AI projects, ends up wasting months rediscovering the same data issues.
Here we take a look at what happens when AI is pushed to operate at scale and at speed across an organisation.
Why Data Governance Initiatives Stall
Data governance initiatives can have a tendency to stall, particularly when positioned as purely technical mandates.
An analysis published by the Forbes Technology Council highlights this vulnerability. They note that ambitious enterprise AI initiatives frequently falter because core data governance framework design occurs entirely within IT, no business-side participation to be seen.
According to Lets Data Science, this observation aligns with broader industry data.
This post looks at why governance initiatives stall when core design sits solely within IT.
Three Steward Roles
A common point of failure in data management programmes is treatment of the role of data steward as a uniform, static position.
👏 We are pleased to see Mathieu Le Guével challenge this, observing that organisations frequently encounter friction because they hire a generic data steward without accounting for their specific organisational size, maturity, or exposure to AI technologies.
To resolve this ambiguity, Mathieu introduces a framework that categorises stewardship into three distinct, evolving archetypes:
⚙️ Operational steward
💼 Business steward
🖥️ Domain/AI steward
Take a look at this post to learn more about what this framework looks like in practice.
New Article
Data catalogues are no longer passive inventories.
The sheer volume and velocity of enterprise data are forcing a radical shift, moving them from read-only repositories into powerful, read-write execution engines.
This evolution means leaving the constraints of relational tables behind and migrating towards the fluid, interconnected intelligence of knowledge graphs.
We take a deep dive in our latest article to discover how this active metadata orchestration can deliver dynamic access control, automated quality checks, and self-healing documentation.
Read the full article below.👇
Scotland Meet-Up:
A fantastic day was shared by all at our recent DAMA in-person event in Scotland. Held at Lloyds Banking Group’s Scottish headquarters in Edinburgh, data and AI professionals came together for a highly original interactive meet-up. 👨👨👧👧
Here, our courageous attendees were brave enough to face the Data Quality Vault challenge! An escape room-style experience that brought data management and data quality principles to life in a really practical (and fun!) way.
The day also featured a case study from the Data Office at Lloyds, followed by a panel discussion on preparing your data for the world of AI, with contributions from the wonderful Leanne Bridges, Robin McKenzie, and Stuart Wallace.
We also had plenty of space for networking, with great conversations between our wonderful guests happening throughout the evening. ✨
A huge thank you to everyone who attended and helped make the day such a success, we couldn’t have done it without you!
DAMA UK & DAMA Ireland Joint Event:
On May 7th, data and AI leaders from across Ireland and the UK came together in Dublin for the DAMA Ireland & DAMA UK joint event, held at the Bank of Ireland Workbench. 🤖📊
The theme of the evening was ‘AI begins with Data,’ where we heard brilliant discussions on topics such as how AI is changing the traditional data governance paradigm, AI legislation and data protection and privacy, and the impact of AI on people, including how data management needs to evolve to meet the challenges of the AI revolution.
Some highlights from the day included a thought-provoking keynote presentation from Mike Ferguson, who discussed the need for an Agentic, unified data governance platform and AI-automation. We also heard from Rob Owens, who helped shed light on the legal and regulatory challenges surrounding AI. We finished things off with an interactive panel discussion on how to survive the AI and data revolution, with lots of insightful perspectives from our wonderful members.
With a 90% attendee satisfaction rating, it’s safe to say that the event was a huge success, providing an opportunity for both DAMA UK and DAMA Ireland members to share knowledge and practical insights.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along and contributed, we couldn’t have done it without you!
Did you miss this webinar, click on the image to watch!
See below for July activities, click on the images for more information or to register
If you’ve enjoyed catching up and would like to receive our monthly newsletter straight into your inbox, subscribe here (you can unsubscribe whenever you want).
Finally, we would like to say a HUGE thank you to our brilliant sponsors & partners, who support DAMA UK on our mission to nurture a talented community of data professionals championing the value of data management across the UK.
