Data Engineering in 2026: 12 Predictions
Tectonic shifts in technology are underway. Here are 12 predictions on what this means for data engineering in 2026 — from agentic AI and platform migrations to the future of data quality.
The data engineering automation platform
Specialized agents for migration, optimization, and CI/CD. Plus the context layer and power tools that make your coding agents reliable.
One data quality tool to manage all of your workflows
High data quality starts with prevention
At Datafold, we believe in catching data issues before they reach your stakeholders. Our shift-left approach starts data quality testing early in your pipelines, identifying and resolving problems before they become costly mistakes. Whether through automated CI testing or upstream checks on OLTP databases, Datafold helps your team stay ahead of bad data.
The unified platform
Eliminate vendor overhead with Datafold's all-in-one platform for data quality testing, monitoring, observability, column-level lineage, and reconciliation. From upstream databases to production, Datafold automates testing at every step, ensuring full confidence in your data pipelines.
Built for scale and security
Datafold is engineered to handle complex data ecosystems with ease, scaling effortlessly as your data grows. With built-in security and governance features, including precise access controls and audit trails, ensure your data remains protected and compliant, no matter the size or complexity of your pipelines.
Migrate faster
Accelerate your data migrations by more than 6 months using Datafold's AI-powered SQL conversion and cross-database data diffing capabilities.
Data migration testing
Deploy with speed and confidence
Prevent data quality incidents before they hit production with automated CI/CD testing.
CI/CD Testing
Monitor what you care about
Automatically detect anomalies and resolve data quality incidents with speed.
Data Monitoring
How our customers are ensuring data quality with speed and confidence
100%+
90%+
"Datafold helps you find the hidden changes you didn't know you made to your data, helping you if they're unintended or understanding what's causing them."
Zachary Baustein
3+
300+
"Datafold allows real visibility into data changes before the changes are live, reducing mistakes and enabling our analysts and stakeholders to feel confident in their changes."
Adam Underwood
200+
20%+
"You can see right off the bat whether your data quality is what you were expecting, and reviewers can see it, too. Now we’re at the rate where we’re automating code reviews, or close to it, on 100 pull requests per month. And this is just the start."
John Lee
Testing that plugs into your stack
The Datafold Migration Agent is built to support the tools you're moving from and the platforms you're moving to. Whether you're migrating from SQL Server, Synapse, or Informatica to modern systems like Snowflake, Databricks, or dbt, Datafold fits into your pipeline with minimal setup and maximum coverage.
