Snowflake Build 2026 - the race to prove AI investments aren't wasted money

Enterprises are pouring money into AI, but many are struggling to show returns. With global AI spending set to hit $2.52 trillion this year - a 44% jump according to Gartner - the pressure is mounting on CIOs to demonstrate value or risk budget cuts.

Snowflake sees an opening. At its Build event for developers in London, the data platform specialist made its pitch that organizations will get better results by using AI-enabled tools from trusted providers rather than building everything from scratch - the hope being that IT leaders will rely on proven partners over experimental in-house projects.

Christian Kleinerman, Snowflake's VP of product, outlined a raft of new tools and an OpenAI partnership designed to help customers move faster. At Build, the company showcased roughly 100 new launches from the quarter, focused on simplifying data workflows from storage through to consumption.

In his keynote, Kleinerman was blunt about the ...