Alternative Data Weekly #289

Theme: The Navigator Is Smart. The Driver Still Matters.

John Farrall

May 08, 2026

I look forward to attending BattleFin’s Discovery Day New York May 14, 2026.

Book HERE.

QUOTES

“Data people are still in the driver’s seat, but now we have a smarter, more helpful navigator.” - Amanda Fioritto

News
Pods
Charts
Final Thoughts (AI is like money)

#1 – Ergest Xheblati published The Data Solutions Architect. May 2026.

My Take: #1- Find high leverage problems. #2- Collaborate and get buy in. #3- Architect, design, implement (in other words, make it happen).
People with this mindset … and the ability to use the tools available … will thrive.
From a “data person” perspective, you need to understand the business to get #1 right. Find those high leverage problems where your skill & expertise can make an impact.

#2 – Dylan Anderson published Issue #56 – Redesigning Your Systems for AI. May 2026.

My Take: this was really helpful. I’ve tried to make AI a part of my workflow beyond just a super-powered Google search and writing helper. Can it do high quality research reports? Yes … with the right prompts and feedback. But is takes time & a real understanding of workflow to do this right.
It helps a ton to have 5-years of ADW “context” to share with AI. This is the framework Dylan shares:
- Understand direction – my answer: I need to grow SymetryML
- Pick one or two processes – my answer: meeting preparation (one example of many)
- Redesign the workflow – my answer: pull together a bunch of context and ask the right prep questions.
- Align with the tools – my answer: trying Flow OS has been really helpful to me; I have too many tools and I need to narrow this.
- Assess, celebrate, and embed governance – my answer: to do this right, it takes way more time than I expected.
- Feedback, scale, and rethink the model – may answer: constant iteration.
Related thought from my favorite marketing writer & thinker, Jared Blank from Gobbledy

“…the author sets up AI tool OpenClaw and then laments that he can’t figure out anything to build. He talks about how people encourage him to use OpenClaw to automate his personal workflows and then realizes he doesn’t have any personal workflows that need automating.”

#3 – Carla Fried published Privacy Comes at a Cost for Fintech Borrowers. May 2026.

My Take: want the money? Then share the info.
This is not always as straightforward as it sounds (the “alternative data that crosses a line” section of the article … yikes!).
I feel like we are moving in the right direction. All the additional data that is available about an individual’s credit worthiness should lead to more people accessing loans, which is a positive thing. But there is a privacy tradeoff which I feel like should be a manageable balance.

BONUS: Cornellius Yudha Wijaya published The ML Skills That Still Matter in 2026. April 2026. “In 2026, the most valuable data professionals will not be the ones who chase every new tool. They will be the ones who can build, evaluate, question, and explain AI systems clearly.”

What else I am reading:

67 Bricks published Building a Defensible Data Business: The Publisher’s Playbook. May 2026.

Cassie Kozyrkov published Attention Is All You Have. May 2026.

Matthew Jensen published It’s Time to Talk About Private Credit. May 2026.

Kevin Kliesen (StL Fed) published Comparing the FOMC’s Estimate of R-Star with Alternative Estimates. May 2026

Amanda Fioritto published We automated data validation — Here’s how we did it. April 2026.

The IMF published The United Kingdom Completes the Transitions Plans Under the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus. April 2026.

Source: Stan Altshuller of the Momentum in B2B Tech with AI Podcast interview Sarah McKenna of Sequentum. How AI and Alternative Data Are Changing Investment Decisions | Stan Altshuller | Ep 10 Momentum. April 2026.

My Take: Sequentum is a great story in the alt data space. They have been bootstrapped since day one. Now over 100 employees & (always) profitable.
Alt data is driving 95% of investment decisions (minute 2:40).
Web data with quality and consistency.
Discussion of major use cases. Finance use cases are basically the same as all other use cases (gov’t, corporate, etc). Google trends use cases examples shared. Risk alerts example used.
Human in the loop … different decisions made using the same data.
Probabilistic vs deterministic:
- Probabilistic is very difficult to get high quality, consistent results.
- Deterministic old school way, you know what you are getting.
The key is transparent, clear, compliant processes.

HIGHLIGHTS (31-Minute Run Time)

Minute 01:30 – interview starts, Sarah’s background
Minute 03:30 – use cases for web scraped data (google trends, risk alerts, Tesla, etc)
Minute 11:00 – Probabilistic vs deterministic
Minute 14:00 – LLMs are awesome, but not perfect (most still need evidence-based process)
Minute 19:00 – going from ideation to requirements
Minute 23:00 – Captchas & being thoughtful about how you are collecting information
Minute 26:00 – what is new at Sequentum?

SOURCE: Dylan Anderson published Issue #56 – Redesigning Your Systems for AI. May 2026.

My Take: I’ve said for companies monetizing their data that, whether or not you ever make a dime from your data, the process of getting your data organized is worth the effort.
Similarly, with AI, the process of really understanding your processes and how the work is done, is worth it … whether AI changes your day-to-day life or not.

BONUS 1: Michael Spencer published What AI Infographics say about the future of AI? May 2026.

My Take: I think AI will create more jobs than there are humans to do the jobs.

“…nearly two million workers in the Philippines now work in call centers, up every year since 2016 and through the AI boom. This is Jevons paradox in action: as AI makes call center work cheaper and faster, companies are buying more of it, not less. Lower cost per interaction does not mean fewer interactions. It means more customers served, more channels opened and more markets worth reaching. The technology that was supposed to shrink the industry is fueling its expansion.”