Looking Back on Day 1 of Graph + AI Summit May 2022

As we kick off the second day of Graph + AI Summit 2022, I’d like to thank everyone who joined us virtually for some incredible presentations and discussions.

Making the decision to hold an event virtually versus live and in-person carries with it some challenges and questions. Looking at some of the chat conversations occurring during the sessions yesterday, I think it’s safe to say that going virtual was the right decision this year, thanks in no small part to the work done by so many people, including our presenters and Tigers throughout the company.

Let’s take a look back on some of the Day 1 highlights.

AI Requires Graph for Competetive Advantage

I had the chance to join Dr. Yu Xu, CEO and Founder of TigerGraph, to kick off the event in our keynote address. Here are some of the memorable quotes from Yu’s part of the keynote:

• “Data storage has been based on tables, rows, and columns for the last 50 years. That relational technology has hit a wall when it comes to finding insights in their data. Asking deeper questions on bigger data will grind these systems to a halt.”
• “The problem is not just about the size of your data, it’s the shape of your questions. Business questions don’t fit into the rigid way data is stored. Looking up facts in tables isn’t enough anymore.”
• “Graph has come of age, and is everywhere already in your daily life.”

Understanding When Graph Analytics and AI Are Best for Your Business Use Case

We’ve been very lucky over the years with the guests we’ve welcomed to speak at Graph + AI Summit. The trend continued this year, beginning with a keynote by Gartner’s Afraz Jaffri. Afraz shared his perspective on graph analytics and AI from a well-learned industry perspective. Here are a few points that stood out:

• “Any interaction which involves a relationship between multiple parties is also a graph, and that includes complex business processes.”
• “By 2025, context-driven analytics and AI models will replace 60% of existing models built on traditional data.”
• “A change in thinking and the development of a graph mindset is needed in order to identify those use cases that graph techniques can solve. This will be key to an organization’s success and ability to scale.”

Graph in Games: Past, Present and Future

We’ve seen over the past year an increasing number of opportunities for gaming companies to use graph technology in a variety of ways. There’s no doubt that the video game industry continues to explode; after all, even your smartphone is one-part gaming platform. Graph plays a central role in building unique experiences that gamers will remember.

Microsoft’s Jesse Janosov provided a concise history of gaming for the audience, all through the lens of how graph fits into this influential and seemingly omnipresent industry:

• “There’s an old saying that ‘content is king.’ High-quality content is very important, but today high-quality content and experiences are not enough to succeed at scale over time. The content that has longevity becomes a substrate for connecting people.”
• “The player’s social graph is inextricably linked to the modern gaming experience.”
• “The graph is a more sophisticated, more granular, and thus more effective tool for marketing games.”

On To Day 2!

The breadth of great content on day 1 made it impossible to do everything justice in a recap article. From panels talking about adapting to an uncertain world, implementing digital transformation, or how graph can help companies’ cybersecurity efforts, to numerous expert-led talks across many graph use cases, day 2 has a lot to live up to!

Looking at the agenda, day 2 will be just as impressive as our opening day. Hopefully, you’ll have the chance to join us for the next couple of days of the conference or, if you can’t make it, register and watch the sessions on demand.

Thank you again for attending. I’ll be back with another recap tomorrow!