Maximum ROI: Getting Value From AI With Cortex Code
Throughout the event, attendees will hear from AI experts about how they can get the greatest value from their investments in this technology.
“AI is a challenge for everybody,” says Jay Brophy, principal data and analytics consultant at CDW. “They don't know what to do with it to maximize their ROI or to integrate it into their business. Most businesses I talk to have chatbots, and they get good ROI, but there are so many things they can do beyond that.”
One tool that will be highlighted at the event is Cortex Code, Snowflake’s AI-powered development environment for agentic coding and AI applications. The tool is designed to simplify how organizations build and deploy generative AI applications. Because Cortex Code operates directly within Snowflake, enterprises can access large language models and AI capabilities without exposing sensitive data to external systems.
“Most companies are struggling to build foundations faster to meet the need for AI,” Washburn says. “Cortex Code lives within Snowflake and knows the data and the system. Your AI isn’t guessing when it comes to code, it’s accelerating your foundations based on real knowledge of your business DNA — its data.”
DISCOVER: Connect on-premises and cloud systems into a unified, high-performing platform.
Security, Governance and Infrastructure Build AI Success
As organizations race to deploy AI across their businesses, many are discovering that the technology itself is only part of the equation. One common challenge lies in building systems that can securely connect AI tools to enterprise data while maintaining governance and compliance.
“Security and governance are critical for being ready to use AI, and that's built into the Snowflake platform,” Washburn says.
That readiness is becoming increasingly important as companies move beyond experimentation and begin deploying AI agents that can directly interact with sensitive business data.
Snowflake executives and partners believe one of the company’s major advantages is that its AI capabilities are built directly into the same infrastructure where customer data already resides. That architecture also allows organizations to better support increasingly distributed and multi-cloud environments.
“Snowflake runs in all three of the hyperscale cloud providers,” Washburn says. “This means that regardless of where a customer is currently running the majority of its workloads, it can have that top-tier platform Snowflake running. But it also means that when the customer is multi-cloud, it can put Snowflake close to where its data exists, so it can move compute and AI close to the data.”
EXPLORE: Cloud strategy powers AI and business intelligence.
Getting Results from Natural Language Translation
For years, companies have tried to use natural language interfaces to make enterprise data more accessible. But early systems often struggled to consistently produce meaningful business outcomes.
That dynamic is beginning to change as AI platforms become more tightly integrated with enterprise data infrastructure. Snowflake’s natural language capabilities will enable organizations to use their data more readily with AI tools.
A major part of this evolution is the emergence of semantic layers, which help AI systems better understand the meaning and context of organizational data. Brophy says these improvements are especially noticeable compared with earlier generations of natural language tools.
The combination of governance, semantic understanding and AI grounding is intended to make modern enterprise AI systems far more reliable.
“There's a lot that can be done with Snowflake Intelligence,” Washburn says. “And then Snowflake's building those layers in so it comes out governed. It's actually grounded in real data.”
Washburn expects the greatest value from Snowflake Summit 2026 to emerge after attendees return home and begin applying what they learned inside their own organizations.
“When all of this comes together — governance, security, the semantic layer and the AI to activate it — that's going to turn into outcomes,” Washburn says. “That’s when you’re going to start seeing the art of the possible.”
