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Solutions Review Executive Editor Tim King curated this list of notable analytics and data science news for the week of April 17 2026.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Keeping tabs on all the most relevant analytics and data science news can be a time-consuming task. As a result, our editorial team aims to provide a summary of the top headlines from the last week in this space. Solutions Review<\/em> editors will curate vendor product news, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital funding, talent acquisition, and other noteworthy analytics and data science news items.<\/p>\n For early access to all the expert insights published on Solutions Review<\/em>, join Insight Jam<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, a community dedicated to enabling the human conversation on AI.<\/p>\n Databricks Turns Google Sheets Into A Live Window Into The Lakehouse<\/strong><\/p>\n Databricks has introduced a Google Sheets connector that lets users query Unity Catalog\u2013governed Databricks SQL data directly from Sheets without CSV exports or shadow copies. Teams can use a no\u2011code UI or SQL, apply existing permissions, and schedule refreshes so operational planning and reporting sheets always reflect real\u2011time, governed lakehouse data.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Databricks\u2013Google Sheets connector<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n dbt Labs: AI Is Speeding Up Analytics, But Trust And Governance Are Falling Behind<\/strong><\/p>\n dbt Labs\u2019 2026 State of Analytics Engineering report finds that 72% of teams now prioritize AI\u2011assisted coding, while only 24% prioritize AI\u2011assisted pipeline management, testing, and observability. Trust in data has surged as an organizational priority\u2014from 66% in 2025 to 83% in 2026\u2014but the report warns that governance and validation are not keeping pace with AI\u2011driven acceleration, widening the gap between what\u2019s technically possible and what\u2019s responsible to ship.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0dbt Labs trust vs. acceleration report<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Mews Adds Native BI So Hotel Teams Can Act On Live Data Without Leaving Their PMS<\/strong><\/p>\n Mews has launched Mews Business Intelligence (Mews BI), a native data and analytics product built directly into the Mews operating system for hotels. The tool delivers embedded, self\u2011serve dashboards, AI\u2011generated performance summaries, and scheduled reports so teams can track revenue, occupancy, and bookings across properties and act on live data in one place instead of juggling exports and external BI tools.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Mews press release<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Persistent And Databricks Bring Agentic AI To Merchant Risk, Moving From \u201cCatch-And-Fix\u201d To \u201cPredict-And-Prevent\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Persistent has launched a Databricks\u2011powered Merchant Risk Management and Fraud Detection solution that uses\u00a0agentic<\/strong>\u00a0AI to vet merchants with multi\u2011signal checks before their first transaction and continuously monitor behavior once they go live. Built as a Databricks accelerator on the Data Intelligence Platform, it unifies batch and streaming data plus external signals into a governed intelligence layer that can trigger audited actions like holds, watchlisting, or blocks in real time, with targeted improvements in fraud losses, detection accuracy, and manual review effort.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Persistent + Databricks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Qlik Makes Trust \u201cOperable\u201d By Turning Data Products Into First\u2011Class Trust Objects<\/strong><\/p>\n Qlik is expanding its data product capabilities so teams can govern the datasets used by humans and AI with explicit contracts, service levels, and measurable trust signals. New features include Qlik Trust Score, data contracts, SLOs with alerting and anomaly detection, plus a Data Quality Agent that lets stewards inspect and adjust trust metrics via conversational workflows, all aimed at making data reliability visible and manageable at scale.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Qlik data product trust<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Qrvey\u2019s Perpetual Licensing Bets That SaaS Teams Want Cost Certainty For Embedded AI Analytics<\/strong><\/p>\n Qrvey has introduced a perpetual licensing model for its AI\u2011native embedded analytics platform so SaaS providers can lock in cost predictability as usage grows. Instead of pricing based on data volume, queries, or end\u2011users, Qrvey is emphasizing one\u2011time or employee\u2011based structures that decouple analytics economics from product adoption, giving ISVs more freedom to roll out richer in\u2011app insights without surprise bills.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Qrvey announcement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Reveal Survey: AI, Cyber, And Cloud Drive Tech Job Demand\u2014But Soft Skills Still Differentiate Candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n A new Reveal survey highlights AI\/ML, cybersecurity, and cloud engineering as the most in\u2011demand technology roles and skill sets in 2026. Employers say data science and DevOps remain hot, but also stress communication, cross\u2011functional collaboration, and problem\u2011solving as critical differentiators in hiring decisions as teams work to operationalize AI and modern infrastructure at scale.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Reveal tech jobs survey<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Starburst AIDA Pitches A Single AI Assistant That Can Reason Across All Your Data Mesh<\/strong><\/p>\n Starburst has introduced AI Data Assistant (AIDA), an AI assistant that sits on top of Starburst and Trino to query, reason across, and explain insights from all enterprise data without centralizing it first. AIDA uses metadata, policies, and Starburst\u2019s query engine to keep answers grounded in governed data products, with features for lineage, citation, and semantic understanding that aim to make complex data mesh environments feel like a single, conversational analytics surface.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Starburst AIDA<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Teradata\u2019s Analyst Agent Lands On Azure To Put VantageCloud At Analysts\u2019 Fingertips<\/strong><\/p>\n Teradata has made its Analyst Agent available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace so customers can deploy a natural\u2011language assistant directly against VantageCloud Lake. The agent lets business users ask questions in plain English, generates and runs SQL under the hood, and returns results with explanations, helping organizations widen access to advanced analytics without forcing every user to learn Teradata\u2019s tooling.<\/p>\n Read on for more\u2192\u00a0Teradata Analyst Agent<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Insight Jam<\/em> and Donald Farmer Launch Waitlist for New Mesh Expert Group on the Last Mile: Analytics Leadership in the Age of AI<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Over twelve monthly sessions, a cohort of just eight senior analytics and BI leaders works through the practical and strategic dimensions of leading in an AI-augmented environment.<\/p>\n The sessions build progressively: early months establish a framework for where human judgment remains indispensable; middle months address the operational pressures, data quality, governance, the proliferation of shadow AI tools, and conversational interfaces that complicate deployment in real organizations; later months turn toward team development, role evolution, and a planning horizon of two years.<\/p>\n Join the waitlist on Insight Jam<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Solutions Review<\/em> is Getting Set to Host Alteryx for the Industry Trends event: AI in Analytics: Who’s Really in Control? on April 29<\/strong><\/p>\n In this fireside conversation, we\u2019ll unpack with Alteryx experts Brett Hamel and Troy Wilson what responsible AI looks like inside real analytics workflows. We\u2019ll discuss where AI performs well today, where it still makes mistakes, and how teams validate outputs without slowing themselves down. We\u2019ll explore what \u201chuman in the loop\u201d actually means in practice, what tends to break when AI scales too quickly, and how to design workflows that are transparent, defensible, and accountable.<\/p>\n Read on Solutions Review<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Mini Jam, Q1 2026 On-Demand: The Skills Reckoning on March 31<\/b><\/p>\n This program is designed not simply to comment on change, but to explore the structural redesign of education and workforce systems now required to keep pace with it. For leaders operating at the intersection of AI, education, upskilling, and L&D, the Q1 Mini Jam offers a clear view into the forces reshaping how capability is defined, developed, and deployed in the years ahead.<\/p>\n Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Solutions Review <\/i>Surpasses 250K on YouTube to Power Unmatched Media Momentum in Enterprise Tech & the Human Impact of AI<\/b><\/p>\n Solutions Review<\/em>\u00a0has officially surpassed\u00a0250,000 subscribers on YouTube<\/a><\/strong>, a milestone that\u2019s about more than just the number. This moment marks the payoff of a deliberate, two-year strategy\u00a0centered on authoritative video<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0human-led insight<\/a><\/strong>, and an early recognition of how AI search engines ingest information, assign trust, and surface sources at scale.<\/p>\n Read on Solutions Review<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Solutions Review<\/em> Editors Launch New ‘Human-AI Ledger’ Newsletter to Chronicle the Human Impact of AI<\/strong><\/p>\n Artificial intelligence is everywhere\u2014but understanding its human impact has never been more urgent. That’s where Solutions Review<\/em>‘s latest newsletter, The Human-AI Ledger<\/i><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, comes in. Designed to chronicle how AI is reshaping the way we learn, work, lead, and live, this newsletter explores the soft side of AI\u2014the non-technical, deeply human dimensions that determine whether this technological revolution helps us thrive or leaves us behind.<\/span><\/p>\n Sign up now to get a weekly debrief of the latest human-centric news, insights, and commentary coming out of this emerging discussion.<\/span><\/p>\nAnalytics and Data Science News for the Week of April 17<\/strong>, 2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>Watch this space each week as our editors will share upcoming events, new thought leadership, and the best resources from Insight Jam<\/em>, Solutions Review’s enterprise tech community<\/a><\/strong><\/span> where the human conversation around AI is happening. The goal? To help you gain a forward-thinking analysis and remain on-trend through expert advice, best practices, predictions, and vendor-neutral software evaluation tools.<\/p>\n