{"id":4621,"date":"2026-10-15T12:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/puurdata.nl\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2026-10-19T09:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T07:26:08","slug":"dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/puurdata.nl\/uk\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\/","title":{"rendered":"DTX London 2026: AI is on the naughty step"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DTX London 2026: AI is on the naughty step<\/h1>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n\n\t
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By David Goff, General Manager UK, PuurData UK Ltd<\/em><\/p>\n

There was something palpable \u2014 and remarkably consistent \u2014 across almost every session I attended at DTX London 2026. AI is getting some bad press, but this time from within the industry itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether it was agents going rogue, questionable accuracy, regulation struggling to keep pace, or developers becoming a little too reliant on their new AI colleagues, the message was clear: the honeymoon period may not be over, but AI has definitely been asked to explain itself. So, after a day listening to some genuinely engaging speakers, here\u2019s my decidedly non-scientific download.<\/p>\n

AI assurance is coming. But who\u2019s in charge? Apparently, everyone.<\/h2>\n

Governments around the world are understandably grappling with how to regulate AI. During the keynote, there was discussion of the UK developing AI assurance standards in collaboration with international partners, including the US, Europe and Singapore.<\/p>\n

One point came through strongly: leaving governments and Big Tech alone to write the rulebook isn\u2019t the answer. SMEs, practitioners and the wider technology ecosystem all need a seat at the table.<\/p>\n

The birth of the AI assurance practitioner<\/h2>\n

A job title we\u2019re likely to hear a lot more often. But there\u2019s an interesting dilemma. If Big Tech is responsible for much of the AI technology we\u2019re consuming, how comfortable are we with them marking their own homework?<\/p>\n

That makes independent assurance increasingly important. What I found particularly interesting was the argument that assurance doesn\u2019t have to slow innovation down. Done properly, it could actually accelerate it. Establish the evidence, controls and guardrails early, and organisations can potentially move through development and into production faster and with greater confidence. So perhaps governance isn\u2019t the handbrake. It\u2019s the seatbelt that lets you drive faster.<\/p>\n

Pilot to production: a convincing demo is a starting point<\/h2>\n

One recurring theme was the distance between an impressive demonstration and a system you would trust with your customers, information or business processes. A prototype shows what could be possible. Moving towards production requires evidence that the application works under the conditions it will encounter.<\/p>\n

For an AI search application, for example, producing a plausible answer is only part of the task. Does it retrieve the right information? Is that information current? Can the user check the source? Does the application respect existing access permissions? Those are useful questions to bring into a pilot from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Data quality came up repeatedly during the day. It is easy to underestimate how much an application depends on the information available to it. A carefully prepared demonstration dataset can help explain an idea. Testing with representative business data, within agreed security and access controls, helps establish whether that idea will work for the organisation.<\/p>\n

Agreeing on what success means<\/h2>\n

Another theme was the importance of understanding what decision a pilot is meant to support. Which problem are we trying to solve? What evidence would justify further investment? What level of accuracy is acceptable for this use case? Which errors would make deployment unacceptable?<\/p>\n

One suggestion was that a pilot should continue until you\u2019ve satisfied around 90\u201395% of your success criteria. I\u2019m less convinced by a percentage on its own. Surely it depends on which criteria remain unmet. A minor usability issue and failure to respect access permissions are quite different reasons to hold things up. And I\u2019m not sure perfection has ever survived first contact with a development team.<\/p>\n

What makes an AI project successful?<\/h2>\n

The speakers consistently returned to organizational structure, communication, and training. Everyone needs to understand where the organization is going and, ideally, be walking roughly in the same direction.<\/p>\n

But keep an eye out for the rogue engineers already three steps ahead of everyone else. The message wasn\u2019t to stop them. Quite the opposite. They\u2019re often your innovators. Give them room to experiment \u2014 just make sure there are some sensible guardrails around the playground.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

From vibe coding to value: AI vs the software engineer<\/h2>\n

This discussion became particularly interesting and raised a difficult question: could junior software engineers be among those most exposed to AI-driven disruption? There\u2019s a twist, though. The AI dependency itself may contribute to the problem.<\/p>\n

The panel discussed the \u201cillusion of learning\u201d \u2014 where AI dramatically increases someone\u2019s output while potentially reducing how much of the underlying subject they actually understand. The code works. The output looks impressive. But do you actually know why?<\/p>\n

One argument was that experienced engineers retain a significant advantage: they understand the business context. AI can generate code, but understanding why an organisation works the way it does, what customers actually need and which compromises matter remains a very human advantage. For now. We\u2019re probably only a few miles into the marathon of AI maturity, so how long that advantage lasts is anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

When agents go rogue<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the clearest message of the day concerned accountability: organisations cannot simply point to their AI system when something goes wrong.<\/p>\n

The examples discussed ranged from chatbots apparently losing patience and swearing at customers \u2014 which I\u2019d quite like to test \u2014 to agents offering unauthorized discounts on products and services. I\u2019d also like to test that one. Behind the anecdotes was a serious question: what happens when an AI system makes a promise or takes an action the organization never intended?<\/p>\n

As AI moves from answering questions to taking actions, the need for clear boundaries, governance and accountability becomes considerably more important.<\/p>\n

And finally...<\/h2>\n

One speaker\u2019s comment that I couldn\u2019t resist sharing \u2014 my cheesy quote of the day: \u201cSilos in the enterprise don\u2019t exist, only misaligned incentives.\u201d If only it were that simple.<\/p>\n

My main takeaway from DTX?<\/h2>\n

AI isn\u2019t really on the naughty step because it\u2019s failing. It\u2019s there because it\u2019s becoming embedded in everyday life, and we\u2019re starting to take the consequences much more seriously. The conversation is moving beyond \u201clook what AI can do\u201d towards the much harder questions: should it do it? Can we trust it? Who is accountable? And, most importantly, does it actually create value?<\/p>\n

That feels like progress.<\/p>\n

At PuurData UK, we\u2019re helping organizations explore some of those questions practically \u2014 particularly where AI, search and enterprise data come together.<\/p>\n

About the author<\/h2>\n

\"\"David Goff is General Manager UK at PuurData UK Ltd.<\/a> He works with organizations and Elastic teams to identify where PuurData their expertise in Search & AI, Observability and Security can help \u2013 from proving a use case to improving an existing Elastic environment.<\/p>\n

Get in touch: dgoff@puurdata.com<\/a> | +44 7764 926512<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n\n\t

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Recent news reports<\/h4>\n
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PuurData expands to the United Kingdom<\/a><\/h3>\n Alex Steg<\/a> <\/span> | Headlines<\/a> <\/span> | \n No comments<\/a> <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n
PuurData takes the next step in its development and expands its operations to the United Kingdom.PuurData takes the next step in its development and expands its operations to\u2026<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n
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Save the Date: 20 October 2026 \u2013 ElasticON Amsterdam<\/a><\/h3>\n Alex Steg<\/a> <\/span> | Headlines<\/a> <\/span> | \n No comments<\/a> <\/span>\n <\/div>\n\n
On 20 October, Elastic users, experts, and innovators will meet during ElasticON Amsterdam. We will be there. Will you? The world of data, search, observability, security, and AI is developing at breakneck speed. During\u2026<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div> \n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI is on the naughty step. Following DTX London 2026, David Goff shares his personal take on AI assurance, the illusion of learning and what happens when agents go rogue \u2014 with a little humour along the way.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,32,77,36],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-blog","tag-ai","tag-datastrategie","tag-enterprise-search","tag-search-ai"],"yoast_head":"\nDTX London 2026: AI is on the naughty step - PuurData<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Goff shares AI insights from DTX London 2026, covering assurance, rogue agents and the illusion of learning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/puurdata.nl\/uk\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alex Steg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alex Steg\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c80607e541824f30c2e5e26e94f1dd2e\"},\"headline\":\"DTX London 2026: AI is on the naughty step\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-15T10:12:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-19T07:26:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2016,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/dtx-video-holder.png\",\"keywords\":[\"AI\",\"datastrategie\",\"enterprise search\",\"search ai\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/puurdata.nl\\\/dtx-london-2026-ai-is-on-the-naughty-step\\\/\",\"name\":\"DTX London 2026: AI is on the naughty step - 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