Redgate Insights Team

19 November 2025

The database professional of the future: headlines from Redgate’s Keynote at PASS Data Community Summit 2025

Redgate took the main stage earlier today to open PASS Data Community Summit with our keynote, where we shared our vision for the future of the database development experience – one driven by speed, safety, and the intelligent use of AI.

As data estates grow in scale and complexity, and as organizations push to deliver software faster than ever, the role of the database is undergoing significant change. In the keynote, we explored how Redgate is evolving its tools, workflows, and platform to help data professionals meet these challenges head-on.

Watch this space – our keynote will be available to stream soon so you can catch the full announcement and everything we unveiled.

A Changing Role in a Complex Data Landscape

Today’s data professionals operate in an environment that is more complex, more fragmented, and more demanding than ever before. The expectations placed on them continue to rise, yet the systems, platforms, and people they support are growing at an even faster pace.

A typical day for a DBA or database engineer might include learning the ins and outs of a new database technology, troubleshooting an urgent performance issue, supporting development teams with DevOps processes, and ensuring compliant, secure test data across environments – all while keeping critical systems running smoothly.

It’s no surprise then, that the role is evolving, and for many, becoming increasingly overloaded.

Too many systems, too much change

Early research analysis from our 2026 State of the Database Landscape report underscores just how much complexity data professionals are being asked to manage. A striking 83% of teams now work across two or more database platforms, each bringing its own tooling, behaviors, and learning curve. At the same time, 42% of organizations report operating in a hybrid state, with workloads split between on-premises and the cloud. This shift introduces new layers of infrastructure, provisioning, and governance that database teams must navigate.

As a result, DBAs and data engineers are expected to be experts in more places, with more responsibilities, than ever before.

The AI Surge: Power and Pressure

And then there’s AI.

Across the industry, teams are rapidly adopting AI-driven capabilities, and data sits at the center of all of it. According to the State of the Database Landscape Report, due for publication next year:

• 63% cite data security and privacy as a major concern when adopting AI.
• 77% are building or training AI models, increasing the volume of sensitive data in motion.
• 43% of organizations have invested more than $100,000 in AI in the last year alone.
• 42% are already using AI specifically for database management.

AI brings huge opportunities – automation, insights, smarter tooling – but it also introduces new governance, compliance, and oversight challenges. For data professionals already stretched thin, it can feel like yet another wave crashing against an already full workload.

Work Happening Everywhere – Often Without Visibility

On top of managing systems, there’s the human factor. Database professionals frequently find themselves responsible for safeguarding environments where many people – developers, analysts, even AI systems – making changes, often without the DBA being aware.

Keeping track of who modified what, where, and when shouldn’t be detective work. But in organizations adopting modern development practices at speed, this is the reality.

So How Does a Database Professional Keep Up?

With rising complexity, expanding responsibilities, and the accelerating influence of AI, one question sat at the center of our keynote:

How can today’s database professionals keep up with everything coming their way – and still deliver securely, reliably, and at speed?

This is where Redgate’s vision for the future of the database development experience came to life. On stage, we shared how Redgate’s end-to-end product portfolio is evolving to help database professionals tackle their growing challenges with the support of AI‑powered tools and intelligent automation – not to replace DBAs or developers, but to empower them to work faster, safer, and with greater confidence.

We showcased the tools and products with AI-powered capabilities already available across the Redgate portfolio, including:

• SQL Prompt with AI, helping teams accelerate routine T‑SQL tasks, improve code quality, and onboard new team members more quickly.
• Enhanced Flyway Code Analysis capabilities that strengthen governance by enforcing rules to prevent security issues and protect against data loss long before changes reach production.
• The new GA release of Test Data Manager’s AI Custom Datasets, enabling teams to generate realistic, representative test data for development environments far faster than before.
• A first look at Redgate Monitor’s AI-powered Query Analysis, providing guidance on the likely root cause of slow-running queries and practical suggestions for improvement – making performance troubleshooting faster and more accessible.
• The launch of the Redgate Monitor SaaS early access program, designed for customers with estates of up to 50 servers who prefer a SaaS-first approach to managing their data estate.

What’s next?

This year’s keynote painted a clear picture of a profession in transition. As databases grow more complex, delivery expectations accelerate, and AI reshapes how organizations build and manage software, the role of the data professional has never been more critical. At Redgate, our mission is to support that evolution with tools and capabilities that make work faster, safer, and more connected across the entire database development lifecycle.

And this is only the beginning. The keynote also offered a first glimpse at where the team may be headed next – a vision for what the future of database tooling could look like. Want to learn more? We’ll be posting the link to the full keynote here soon so you can take a sneak peek at what’s on the horizon and where Redgate might be headed next…

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