Welcome to the latest edition of the World of DaaS Roundup.
Since our last edition, the enterprise data wars have entered the courtroom, Snowflake posted one of its strongest quarters yet, enterprises admitted their data still isn’t AI-ready, and privacy officially started looking more like a growth strategy than a compliance exercise.
📰 News & Reads
CNN takes Perplexity AI to court over unlawful data scraping.
CNN joins NYT, Reddit and Chicago Tribune in suing Perplexity for scraping copyrighted content without permission. The fight over who owns data that trains AI is now a full - scale legal war.
Snowflake posts its strongest data cloud quarter ever.
813 Forbes Global 2000 customers, net revenue retention of 126%. Enterprises are finally spending on the data cloud, not just talking about it.
Read more→
Data fragmentation is no longer an IT problem. It’s a business problem.
Gartner expects 60% of AI projects that lack AI-ready data to be abandoned in 2026. Companies aren't losing to bad models, they're losing to scattered data they already own but can't use.
Read more →
Capgemini says AI is unlocking budgets traditional IT spending.
CEO Aiman Ezzat told investors clients are treating AI as a company-wide operating change, not just and IT upgrade. The data and AI services market just got a lot bigger.
Read more →
97% of enterprises are investing in AI. Only 5% say their data is ready.
A Dun & Bradstreet survey of 10,000 business confirms what the industry already suspects: the AI bottleneck isn’t the model, it’s the data. Quality, governance, and interoperability are what separate pilots from production.
Read more →
🌐 WORLD OF DAAS SUMMIT 2026
3rd September 2026, Washington, D.C.
Our flagship summit will take place this September 3, bringing together a highly curated group of 160+ DaaS leaders for closed-door conversations, curated roundtables, and high-signal networking.
Apply to become a World of DaaS Founding Member and secure your summit ticket for $500.
Hope to see you there.
🎙️ The Latest World Of DaaS Podcast
Summation with Auren Hoffman
Auren Hoffman sits down with Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity, to unpack how one of the most controversial companies in the data industry is scaling fast — and what that means for who controls information access in the AI era. This episode lands the same week CNN took Perplexity to court over data scraping, making it essential context for anyone watching the battle over proprietary data unfold in real time.
How Perplexity scaled past $500M ARR with only 34% headcount growth — and what that says about data-efficient business models.
Why CEOs and executives are Perplexity's biggest power users and what that reveals about the future of data consumption.
Why AI's biggest constraint right now isn't capability — it's adoption of data-driven tools at scale.
The $34.5B Chrome bid and what Perplexity's expansion moves say about who controls the data access layer.
"The future of AI is about who you trust to make decisions on your behalf, not who shouts the loudest.".”
An Unexpected Data Read For Today.
New research from Harvard Business Review challenges a long-held assumption: data privacy isn't a cost center — it's a growth strategy. A study of 280 brands over four years found that companies with strong privacy practices consistently outperformed on customer purchase intent.
The companies treating data governance as a competitive advantage are winning. The ones treating it as a compliance checkbox are falling behind.
Where Data Meets Art
Behind every AI-generated image lies a dataset.
This week’s random art pick takes us into DATALAND, the world’s first Museum of AI Arts created by Refik Anadol. Built using millions of nature-based datasets, real-time environmental inputs and immersive AI systems, the project explores how data is no longer just infrastructure — it’s becoming creative material.
🔥 In Case You Missed It…
M&A Funding Roundup
💼 World Of DaaS Job Board
The World of DaaS job board highlights opportunities from members across our community
Head of Data Analytics, Asana
Director, Business Intelligence & Analytics Engineering, Qcells North America
VP, Data & Analytics, Scribd Inc.
Looking to showcase an open role?
Apply to join and get access to exclusive perks including job board postings, curated introductions, private events, and more.
🔍 Become a World of DaaS Member
We’re headed back to D.C. next September for our flagship event, bringing together 160+ DaaS leaders for a day of candid conversations, curated roundtables, and private networking experiences. Join the leaders shaping the future of data.
Apply to become a World of DaaS Founding Member and secure your summit ticket for just $500.
