From Insights to Agents: Turning Data into Business Outcomes and Smarter AI Systems
Join us for an evening of real-world use cases and impactful discussions at the intersection of data, AI, and business strategy. Thoughtworks and Women in Big Data NRW are excited to co-host this event, bringing together professionals and enthusiasts from across the data and AI landscape.
Hear from Inna Zykova (Thoughtworks), who will explore how AI agents can move beyond basic chatbots to perform complex, real-world tasks; and Mareike Heller (DeepL), who will share how robust marketing data foundations can align metrics with business impact across decentralized teams.
You’ll get to learn directly from experts tackling real-world challenges, take away ideas you can use in your own work, and meet others who share your passion for data and AI.
We believe in the beauty of diversity in all its forms, and everyone is welcome to attend!
Agenda
- 6:30 PM - Welcome and Check-in
- 7:00 PM - Talk 1: Beyond chatbots: How to build smarter AI-powered systems with agents - Inna Zykova, Data Engineer Consultant at Thoughtworks
- 7:30 PM - 15 min break
- 7:45 PM - Talk 2 : Marketing measurement foundations as a catalyst for strategic data initiatives - Mareike Heller, Senior Data Scientist at DeepL
- 8:15 PM - Networking Session
Come and join us in evening full of great talks and networking opportunities over delicious snacks and drinks!
Note - please follow us and register for the event in our new event space:
https://www.eventbrite.de/e/women-in-big-data-nrw-with-thoughtworks-tickets-1303381261439?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
See you there in Köln!
Featured talks and abstracts
Talk 1: Beyond Chatbots: How to Build Smarter AI-Powered Systems with Agents - Inna Zykova, Data Engineer Consultant at Thoughtworks
Chatbots are everywhere—but let’s be honest, they often fall short. They can answer simple questions, but when it comes to handling complex tasks or truly helping users, they quickly hit their limits. That made us ask: what comes after chatbots?
In this talk, we’ll share how we moved beyond basic bots and started building smart AI agents—systems that don’t just chat, but actually do things. We started simple: we created an agent that could answer domain-specific questions, call APIs, use tools behind the scenes, and handle technical queries. We offered this as a template to our customers—and then we watched. The results were impressive. Our users quickly found creative and valuable ways to adapt the agent to their needs, and we learned a lot from their use cases.
We’ll share some insights and show why we believe agents are the next step in building smarter AI-powered systems.
Talk 2: Marketing measurement foundations as a catalyst for strategic data initiatives - Mareike Heller, Senior Data Scientist at DeepL
This talk shares the journey of building a scalable performance marketing reporting system from the ground up covering key deliverables such as attribution, ROAS, and customer lifetime value. It explores how a concrete use case sparked a cross-organisational initiative among decentralised data teams to improve data quality and drive measurable business impact. A central theme of the talk is the ongoing need to bridge the gap between business goals and data realities - translating value lineage across domains to build solutions that truly matter for business. At its core, this reflects DeepL’s broader mission: breaking down barriers through translation - not just across languages, but between business and data, enabling meaningful collaboration and valuable data products.
