Data, AI, and Knowing When to Let Go - with Tommy Cotter

Tommy Cotter is Director of Data Products at Benzinga, a financial media company building the data infrastructure that sits behind trading platforms and investment apps used by millions of people daily. He's been navigating the shift to AI-assisted workflows in a space where speed and accuracy aren't just nice to have - getting it wrong has real consequences. In this episode, Peter and Dave talk with Tommy about what it actually looks like to build data products responsibly in a fast-moving AI environment. They get into where humans still need to be in the loop, how compliance has become a competitive signal, and why being nimble matters more than picking the perfect architecture from day one. Chapters: 0:00 Welcome And Show Setup 0:15 Meet Benzinga And The Mission 2:09 Democratized Data Changes Investing 2:09 Data Quality Needs Human Review 6:50 Scaling AI Without Losing Judgment 9:11 Staying Nimble As Tech Shifts 13:10 Hiring For Backend And DevOps Depth 13:10 Security Compliance As Market Signal 16:40 MCP Workflows Beyond Simple APIs 20:55 Traceability And Accuracy At Speed 23:16 Takeaways And How To Reach Us Three things to take away from this conversation: Self-agency is real now. If you have a strong conviction about a product or problem, the barrier to building something has never been lower. That's a genuine shift from even five years ago. Security and compliance are no longer just internal concerns. In a world where AI startups spin up overnight, having invested in SOC2 or GDPR signals to customers that you're a legitimate, trustworthy operation. It's a market differentiator. Humans still belong in the system. Not everywhere, but in the right places. For low-risk, deterministic processes, let AI run. For anything client-facing or accuracy-critical, keep a human in the loop. Knowing the difference is the skill. If this conversation sparked something for you, send us your thoughts at [email protected]. And if you haven't already, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one.