Marcus Fontoura — Technical Fellow; CTO for Azure Core, Microsoft
Published:
There is no AI without data… my experience has been like that one crucial platform that people normally get wrong is the data platform. They don’t have a data lake. Many times they have multiple data lakes and the data is not consistent. And then they don’t have even basic definitions of what a customer is, what a transaction is and so on. And then when they try to cross reference this data across these multiple systems that they have, normally there are like impedance mismatches and semantic mismatches.
What does Marcus Fontoura say on The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström?
Marcus Fontoura, Technical Fellow; CTO for Azure Core, Microsoft, says: This interview with Marcus Fontoura, Technical Fellow and CTO for Azure Core at Microsoft, explores the strategic value of adopting a platform mindset across the enterprise. Fontoura explains the "multiplier effect" of building shared, reusable platforms, the cultural and incentive changes required to adopt them, and why a single, well-governed data platform is essential for effective AI and cross-team innovation. The conversation ties platform strategy to leadership, governance, and operational agility.
From: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström
Cite as: Marcus Fontoura. (2026). On The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström. Retrieved from https://research.agilebrandguide.com/insights/marcus-fontoura-there-is-no-ai-without-data-my-experience-has-been-like-tha