Alter Everything · 2026-02-18 · 44 min
We’re back! In this episode of Alter Everything , Josh Burkhow sits down with Ari Kaplan, Head of Evangelism at Databricks and a pioneer of AI in sports. From building operating systems as a kid and studying at Caltech to transforming baseball analytics and now shaping enterprise AI strategy, Ari shares how physics-inspired thinking, relentless curiosity, and better data have driven his career. They explore the evolution from databases to generative AI, common mistakes organizations make with GenAI, why data engineering matters more than prompt engineering, and how true evangelism is about planting seeds and not pushing hype. Panelists Ari Kaplan, Head of Evangelism @ Databricks - LinkedIn Joshua Burkhow, Chief Evangelist @ Alteryx - @JoshuaB , LinkedIn Topics Databricks Major League Baseball analytics & the Moneyball era AI in sports, healthcare, and enterprise Generative AI & data engineering foundations Data + AI governance Raoul Wallenberg humanitarian investigation Alter Everything podcast
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