Post by dbt Labs

The 2026 State of Analytics Engineering Report is out. Two years ago, most data teams were still debating whether to use AI at all. Today, 72% have embedded AI-assisted coding into their daily workflows. The question has shifted from "should we?" to "how do we do this reliably?" That's the tension at the heart of this year's report. dbt Labs surveyed hundreds of practitioners and leaders across industries to understand how the field is evolving, and what emerged is a clear pattern: AI is scaling analytics output faster than the trust and governance mechanisms designed to support it. Trust as a strategic priority rose sharply year-over-year, with 83% of teams now calling it a top organizational goal, up from 66% in 2025. Speed followed the same direction, climbing from 50% to 71%. But only 24% are investing in the testing, observability, and governance controls that make AI output trustworthy. And 71% are concerned about hallucinated or incorrect data reaching stakeholders. The teams navigating this well aren't slowing down on AI. They're building the infrastructure that lets them move fast without losing confidence in their data. Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/gWJsRtTE