The DAIS 2026 Speaker Spotlight is a series where we hand the mic to the speakers heading to Data + AI Summit and let them answer five short questions — in their own voice, no press-release polish.
Below, Robert Zhang on how agents have changed the threat model — and the unified framework Databricks is building to keep enterprises secure without slowing them down. Lightly edited for length — otherwise, the words are his.
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A stolen token used to be one insider. Now it's a swarm operating at machine speed, finding every vulnerability an agent can reach.
— Robert Zhang
The topic
What is your talk about, and who is it for?
This session is a practical playbook for preventing data exfiltration and monitoring egress on Databricks. It's built for platform admins, security and cyber teams, and anyone responsible for keeping their Databricks environment secure without slowing builders down.
Why this, why now
What's changed in the last 6–12 months that makes this topic urgent right now?
Agents have changed the threat model. A stolen token used to be one insider. Now it's a swarm operating at machine speed, finding every vulnerability an agent can reach. Exfiltration risk hasn't fundamentally changed, but the scale and speed have. We're also shipping exciting new capabilities that will make it easier to secure and monitor your environment.
The personal stake
Why are you the person giving this talk?
I'm the product manager driving many of the new capabilities we'll cover. I've worked directly with many customers shaping these features, and I'm excited to walk through what we're building and why.
What you'll leave with
What will someone be able to do on Monday morning that they couldn't do before?
You'll leave with a unified framework: trusted ingress, controlled egress, and trusted workloads accessing data. Concretely, learn about Unified Login, Automatic Identity Management, and context-based ingress on the way in; serverless egress controls, classic compute firewalling, and egress logging on the way out. You will also learn about what's new and coming in this space.
The bigger picture
How does this fit into where Databricks — and data and AI more broadly — is heading?
Enterprises want to deploy AI fast, but not at the cost of security. Databricks is investing heavily here so customers don't have to choose between innovation and control, making agentic AI deployable in regulated, real-world environments.
Part of the DAIS 2026 Speaker Spotlight series — more voices dropping in the weeks ahead. Got a DAIS speaker you'd love to hear from next? Mention them in the comments — we're always listening.
