From Data Sharing to Governed Intelligence with Adrian Bolosan from Databricks

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2542969/fa...) Modern data collaboration promises to help organisations work together without repeatedly copying, moving or exposing sensitive information. But while the technology has advanced quickly, trust, commercial incentives and internal processes have not always kept pace. In Episode 6 of The First Mile, Dom Burch speaks with Adrian Bolosan, Head of ISV GTM Strategy for Enterprise and Emerging Business in the Americas at Databricks. Adrian explains how Databricks is expanding its focus beyond the core platform to the wider ecosystem of data providers, connected technologies and software companies building on Databricks. The ambition is to make “Databricks plus partner” a force multiplier for customers, helping them solve specific business problems without assembling everything themselves. The conversation explores how OpenSharing and clean rooms allow organisations to collaborate without surrendering control of their underlying data. Adrian shares examples from identity resolution, supply-chain data and retail media, including one retailer and CPG collaboration that took almost a year to complete. The technology worked, but lengthy approvals, misaligned incentives and excessive aggregation left the resulting insights too diluted to be useful. Dom and Adrian also discuss the less glamorous middle of data collaboration: legal agreements, procurement, security reviews, data engineering and seller incentives. In many cases, the biggest obstacle is no longer technical. It is persuading people and commercial models to move away from established ways of working. The final part of the episode turns to AI. Adrian argues that organisations cannot jump straight to sophisticated agents without first addressing the quality, identity, consent and governance of their underlying data. They also discuss real agentic media-buying pilots between publishers and agency holding companies, where agents are already buying media, receiving signals and deciding what to do next. In this episode • What data collaboration means in practical terms • Why zero-copy sharing is replacing legacy files, APIs and duplicated pipelines • How clean rooms support identity resolution without exposing raw customer data • Why a technically successful retail-media collaboration still failed to create value • Where Databricks chooses to build and where it relies on specialist partners • What Databricks looks for in a Built-On partner • How commercial incentives can slow adoption of better technology • Whether clean rooms reduce costs or create another cost centre • Why AI adoption depends on reliable and governed source data • How MCP servers are connecting agents to external data and tools • What is already happening in agentic media buying • How businesses should identify the right place to begin Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:01 Adrian’s expanded role and the Databricks partner ecosystem 03:16 What has changed in data collaboration 04:47 Identity resolution and zero-copy sharing 06:37 A retail-media collaboration that underdelivered 09:28 Why trust still comes first 10:09 Where Databricks stops building and partners begin 12:35 The Partner Well-Architected Framework 15:44 Legal, procurement and the boring middle 18:22 Who pays for data collaboration? 20:21 Why poor data undermines AI 23:13 MCP adoption and AI-ready data 24:03 Agentic media buying across company boundaries 26:18 Governing what agents can access and do 27:50 Adrian’s advice for getting started About Adrian Bolosan Adrian Bolosan leads ISV go-to-market strategy for Databricks’ Enterprise and Emerging Business across the Americas. His work spans data collaboration, partner adoption and the ecosystem of specialist companies that connect to or build their products on Databricks. Before taking on his expanded role, Adrian helped develop Databricks’ go-to-market approach around data collaboration, including OpenSharing and clean rooms. Find out more