Recently I met with Rene Buest, director of Technology Research at Arago, during Cloud Expo in Frankfurt. Based on his experience, I wanted to find out if artificial intelligence (AI) is eating the data infrastructure. In the last few months, I've read a few articles about the impact of AI on the software world, with provocative titles like AI Is Eating Software. As an employee of an infrastructure and data management company, I wanted to understand what AI means for data infrastructure and what kind of impact this exciting technology will have on the future of IT. I asked Rene four questions to get his take on the subject.

The Internet giants are fully embracing AI. All the services they offer to their customers are aimed at drawing a map of the world with the data they get. The AIs from these companies are used to build disruptive approaches that cannot be used by established enterprises, which are threatened by these disruptions. However, most leaders underestimate the effect this will have on their businesses. Speaker Bio Rene Buest is Director Market Research & Technology Evangelism at Arago.

On Wednesday, April 19 the very first Meetup in Frankfurt dedicated to Artificial Intelligence took place. When the four organizers Tobias Zander, Darren Cooper, Jochen Bachmann and Rene Buest started talking about organizing such a Meetup about two months ago, they expected to be hosting around fifteen to twenty people. Thus, they couldn't believe their eyes when the Meetup (free of charge) was fully booked after less than 24 hours and in the end around 180 people participated in the premiere! The great location up on the 31st floor of the Silver Tower (Skydeck powered by DB Systel) did its job, too, and the AI interested audience could watch the sun go down while enjoying the speakers' presentations. Led by Tobias and Darren, the presentations started off with a short introduction by Ruediger Kurz about DB and AI, followed by two Women Techmakers, Marie-Luise Sessler and Jelena Senic, who examined some interesting questions in the light of Computer Science and Philosophy.