Rosanne Werner tells Katie Baker why e-learning alone won't make a data expert, and why AI budgets need to follow the people.
At Big Data LDN 2026, Rosanne says the buzz starts as soon as you walk in, and she loves putting faces to names for people who've flown in from across the world.
Rosanne advocates for the human element of data, AI and transformation. While many data leaders talk about the tech, she asks how they're bringing people on board. Are they educating them properly? Are they addressing change fatigue?
That shapes her 12-month bet. She thinks the heavy focus on e-learning for data skills won't last, because you can't just do e-learning and then be a data expert. Things change quickly, so people need to practise, compare notes with their peers, test what works, and turn what they learn into knowledge that changes how they work.
Her advice on where to invest comes with the stat. Citing a Deloitte report, Rosanne says 93% of AI budgets goes on technology and 7% on people. The figure comes from Deloitte's Tech Trends research, highlighted by its CTO Bill Briggs. Her question is who the tech is for. It's for the people, and without investment in them, the tools and the resources used to build them are wasted.
Check where your own AI budget lands. If it stops at the tools, the people expected to use them are on their own.
