Qlik Connect: Ryan Welsh On Turning AI Into Business Outcomes

What actually separates AI that delivers real value from AI that never makes it past the demo stage?

Recording live from Qlik Connect, I sat down with Ryan Welsh, Field CTO of Generative AI at Qlik, to get a grounded, practitioner-led view of what it really takes to make AI work inside a business. While the industry has spent the past few years racing to experiment, build, and deploy new capabilities, many organizations are still struggling to turn that progress into capabilities people use every day.

In our conversation, Ryan cuts through the noise and explains why so many AI initiatives fail. Not because the models aren't powerful enough, but because they're not designed to fit into real workflows. He shares why context is far more than just a buzzword and how getting the right data, in the right place, at the right time, enables AI to deliver meaningful outcomes.

We also explore the growing shift toward agentic AI and the responsibilities that come with it. From designing systems that can act autonomously while remaining under control to understanding where humans need to stay involved, Ryan offers a practical view of how organizations can move forward without introducing unnecessary risk.

There's also a refreshing honesty around where we are right now. After a wave of investment and expectation, many companies struggled to see immediate value from AI. But as Ryan explains, that period is changing, with more organizations finding ways to scale what works and move beyond isolated use cases.

So, as businesses look ahead, what does it really take to move from experimentation to execution? And are we focusing too much on building more AI rather than the right AI for how our organizations actually operate?

Join me for a candid conversation from the heart of Qlik Connect, and let me know your thoughts. Are you seeing AI deliver real outcomes in your business, or is it still stuck in the demo phase?

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