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William McKnight, President, McKnight Consulting Group

William McKnight, President, McKnight Consulting Group

Describe your career to date

I started as a version 1 software engineer of the DB2 product at IBM. I then worked at Platinum Technology where I taught a portfolio of classes on DB2 and consulted all over the country. I next took a director position at Visa. This became one of the very early data warehouse big success stories.

I moved to Anthem as IT Vice President over data, leading an award-winning data warehouse success, before starting McKnight Associates in 1998. I founded McKnight Associates and placed in the Inc 500 and the Dallas 100 (twice). I sold the company in 2005 and in 2009, I started McKnight Consulting Group. McKnight Consulting Group has been on the Inc 5000 twice. I have been consulting in data for 26 years.

I am the author of three books and hundreds of research papers. I give multiple keynotes and have dozens of appearances every year, including a TEDx talk. I have spoken more publicly on data than just about anyone. I have a four-year running monthly webinar series, Advanced Analytics, at Dataversity. Our work is engineering-based, and we have published more benchmarks in information management than anyone. I have taught at three universities and consulted in 14 countries.

For several years, I have been independently recognized as the top global influencer in big data and cloud and on the list of top MDM influencers, having consulted numerous global 1,000 and midsize companies.

What challenges do you see for data in the year ahead that will have an impact on you and on the industry as a whole? 

The challenges will be around artificial intelligence (AI), specifically generative AI (genAI), as there is a high demand to incorporate this technology into enterprise environments. However, genAI requires enterprise data to be thoroughly managed, well-performing, accessible and architected and most data environments need remediation for this.

Another big challenge is finding skilled workers, namely data scientists, who can utilize all enterprise data for AI-related benefit. Also, navigating data localization requirements and restrictions on cross-border data flows will be challenging for global organizations.

How do you see data literacy developing across a) your network and b) the data industry generally?

Data literacy is on a growth trajectory, although more of it would serve organizations very well. Entry barriers are being removed by the widespread availability of data literacy provided by open-source platforms, online tutorials, and courses.

Additionally, there are active online groups that foster a learning environment around tool usage. Employers have staff training initiatives, adding data fluency to job descriptions, and encouraging data-driven decision-making. I address the issue generally by providing education in both bite-sized social posts as well as longer-form webinars and in-depth research papers, and we always add data literacy and organizational change initiatives to our enterprise projects.

How do you see the industry preparing for AI adoption and change management?

We are at the start of general AI. AI is a big change. When you add AI coming into the workplace that is going to even make adoption and change worse if it is not dealt with. The data industry is making progress in preparing for the adoption of AI despite the obstacles. Successful organizations are responsibly using AI to achieve positive outcomes by focusing on upskilling and reskilling employees, developing responsible AI, encouraging cooperation and knowledge sharing, addressing ethical concerns and potential risks, and adopting an organizational change management approach. More is necessary, however, to keep progress at pace.

William McKnight
has been included in:

100 Influencers 2024 (USA)

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William McKnight, President, McKnight Consulting Group

Join our membership network of over 250 global senior data and AI leaders.

The trusted global collaboration and intelligence platform for data leaders.

Join our membership network of over 250
global senior data and AI leaders.