Timothy Spann

Posted on Jun 2

All Data and AI Weekly #244-01 June 2026

#ai #agenticai #snowflake #apachenifi

All Data and AI Weekly #244-01 June 2026

( AI, Data, Agentic AI, Cortex Code, NiFi, Iceberg, Polaris, Streamlit, Python, Java, SQL, MCP, LLM, RAG, Cortex AI, AIFN, Search, Unstructured Data )

Tim's Corner: IT'S SUMMIT WEEK!

Welcome to issue 244 - the Snowflake Summit 2026 edition! Tomorrow we kick off the biggest data and AI event of the year in San Francisco. I'll be there speaking on NiFi and Agents - come find me! This week Snowflake dropped a flurry of Summit-week announcements: Snowflake is acquiring Natoma for governed agentic access to enterprise systems. Arctic-Text2SQL-R2 beats frontier models on enterprise SQL generation. Zorro introduces enterprise reinforcement learning training that breaks performance bottlenecks. Gemini 3.5 Flash is now available for multimodal video and audio analysis in Cortex AI. Claude Opus 4.8 launched from Anthropic. AI_EXTRACT extraction scores went GA with confidence scoring. Dynamic Tables got adaptive refresh mode (preview) and frozen regions. Custom runtime images for Notebooks and ML Jobs entered preview. Sensitive Data Access reports entered preview. OpenFlow expanded with Aurora PostgreSQL CDC and secured runtimes. The engineering team published on Graph Queries in Postgres with Apache AGE. And I spoke at Budapest Data and AI - slides are up! SEE YOU AT SUMMIT!

SNOWFLAKE SUMMIT 2026 - San Francisco

IT'S HAPPENING NOW!

Snowflake Summit 2026 kicks off tomorrow! Join 10,000+ data professionals in San Francisco for keynotes with Anthropic's Daniela Amodei, 500+ sessions, 200+ partners, hands-on labs, and the biggest announcements in the Snowflake ecosystem.

Tim is speaking on NiFi and Agents! Come say hello.

Snowflake Dev Day (In-Person): https://www.snowflake.com/en/dev-day/in-person/

All Snowflake Events: https://www.snowflake.com/about/events/

June 4: Conf42 Database DevOps - SQL Automation Operations - Virtual

Featured: Snowflake to Acquire Natoma - Governed Agentic Access

Snowflake announces intent to acquire Natoma, bringing secure connectivity and governed agentic access to the enterprise. Natoma provides the secure connectivity layer that AI agents need to safely interact with enterprise systems.

Blog: Snowflake to Acquire Natoma for Governed Agentic Access

Press Release: Snowflake Announces Intent to Acquire Natoma

Featured: Arctic-Text2SQL-R2 - Beating Frontier Models on Enterprise SQL

Arctic-Text2SQL-R2 is Snowflake's latest enterprise text-to-SQL model that beats frontier models on enterprise SQL generation benchmarks. Purpose-built for complex enterprise schemas, multi-table joins, and real-world business queries.

Featured: Zorro - Enterprise Reinforcement Learning Training

Zorro introduces enterprise-grade reinforcement learning training that breaks performance bottlenecks, enabling faster iteration on AI model optimization at scale.

Cortex AI & Agents

Gemini 3.5 Flash for Multimodal Video and Audio (May 28)

Gemini 3.5 Flash is now available in Cortex AI Functions for multimodal video and audio analysis. Frontier multimodal intelligence with Flash-level speed for marketing, content intelligence, compliance, and media analytics.

Release Notes: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/release-notes/2026/other/2026-05-28-gemini-3-5-flash-multimodal-video-audio

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/snowflake-cortex/ai-multimodal

Claude Opus 4.8

Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.8 - the latest flagship model with enhanced reasoning and coding capabilities.

AI_EXTRACT Extraction Scores (GA - May 22)

Extraction scores for AI_EXTRACT are now GA. Get confidence scores (0-1) for each extracted value, with support for entities, lists, and tables.

Release Notes: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/release-notes/2026/other/2026-05-22-ai-extract-scores-ga

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/sql-reference/functions/ai_extract#extraction-scores

AI_COMPLETE with Fine-Tuned LLMs

Example repository for using AI_COMPLETE with fine-tuned LLMs on Snowflake.

GitHub: https://github.com/sfc-gh-csharkey/AI_COMPLETE_w_FineTunned_LLM

CoCo Control Hub: Self-Service Cortex Code Spend Governance

CoCo Control Hub - a self-service Cortex Code spend governance app built on Streamlit in Snowflake (SiS).

Snowflake Platform Updates

Dynamic Tables: Adaptive Refresh Mode (Preview - May 26)

Adaptive refresh mode (REFRESH_MODE = ADAPTIVE) uses incremental refresh by default but automatically reinitializes when upstream change volume makes incremental refresh more expensive than full refresh. Ideal for workloads with variable change volumes.

Dynamic Tables: Frozen Regions (Renamed - May 28)

Dynamic tables immutability constraints are renamed to frozen regions. IMMUTABLE WHERE becomes FROZEN WHERE.

Custom Runtime Images for Notebooks and ML Jobs (Preview - May 19)

Build, validate, and register custom container images for Snowflake Notebooks and ML Jobs on Container Runtime. Include specific packages, meet compliance requirements, integrate with CI/CD pipelines.

Sensitive Data Access Report (Preview - May 28)

Generate a Sensitive Data Access report to view which users accessed sensitive data during a specified lookback period.

Release Notes: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/release-notes/2026/other/2026-05-28-sensitive-data-access-report-preview

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/classify-ui-trust-center#label-classify-trust-center-access-report

Git Integration: Public Repos

Updated documentation for setting up public Git repository integrations with Snowflake.

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/developer-guide/git/git-setting-up-public

Snowflake CLI: Getting Started Guide

New guide for Snowflake CLI for users migrating from SnowSQL.

Apache Iceberg

Iceberg Internal Storage

Documentation for Iceberg tables with Snowflake-managed internal storage.

Documentation: https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/tables-iceberg-internal-storage

Iceberg v3 Tables Comprehensive Guide

Complete developer guide for Iceberg v3 tables on Snowflake.

Guide: https://www.snowflake.com/en/developers/guides/iceberg-v3-tables-comprehensive-guide/

The Open Lakehouse: Iceberg Tables via Glue and Athena

Access Snowflake Iceberg tables via AWS Glue and Athena for true open lakehouse interoperability.

Iceberg External Write Support GA

Community deep dive on Iceberg external write support going GA.

OpenFlow

Real-Time CDC from Aurora PostgreSQL to Snowflake with OpenFlow

Stream change data capture from Aurora PostgreSQL to Snowflake in real-time using OpenFlow.

Securing OpenFlow Runtimes

A layered approach to deploy, operate, and monitor OpenFlow runtimes securely.

Engineering Deep Dives

Graph Queries in Postgres with Apache AGE

Snowflake engineering blog on running graph queries in Postgres using Apache AGE - bringing graph analytics to relational databases.

From Legacy BI to an Intelligence Layer

Lessons from Snowflake's own BI migration to an intelligence layer.

Tim's Content

Budapest Data and AI - Talk Materials

Tim spoke at Budapest Data and AI - slides and materials are now available.

Materials: https://budapestdata.hu/en/program/talk-materials/

New SNACK-AI Repositories

SNACKAI-CoCo-SnowflakeSummit2026 - Summit notes and demos (NEW)
SNACKAI-CoCo-piups-breakout-garden - Raspberry Pi UPS breakout garden sensor monitoring
SNACKAI-CoCo-NanoSensorGarden - NVIDIA Nano sensor garden IoT
SNACKAI-CoCo-PremiumViews - Premium views and analytics
SLACKAI-CoCo-JetsonEdge - Edge AI on NVIDIA Jetson
SNACKAI-CoCo-SnowflakeSummit2026Agenda - Summit 2026 agenda explorer
SNACKAI-CoCo-CortexAITraining - Cortex AI training materials
SNACKAI-CoCo-AIGovernance - AI governance patterns
SNACKAI-CoCo-FindDataNearby - Location-aware data discovery
SNACKAI-CoCo-SpringSnowGhost - Spring ghost detection
SNACKAI-CoCo-AIQueries - AI query builder
SNACKAI-CoCo-PolyMarket - Prediction market analytics
SNACKAI-CoCo-VPSCalculator - VPS cost calculator

From the Community: Medium & Blogs

Real-Time CDC from Aurora PostgreSQL to Snowflake - OpenFlow CDC from Aurora
CoCo Control Hub: Cortex Code Spend Governance - Self-service spend governance on SiS
Securing OpenFlow Runtimes - Layered security for OpenFlow
Getting Started with Snowflake CLI - Migration guide from SnowSQL
From Legacy BI to an Intelligence Layer - Snowflake's own BI migration
Iceberg External Write Support Now GA - Iceberg writes deep dive
Open Lakehouse: Iceberg via Glue and Athena - AWS interoperability

GitHub: Snowflake Labs & Community

AI_COMPLETE_w_FineTunned_LLM - AI_COMPLETE with fine-tuned models
microsoft/agent-governance-toolkit - Microsoft agent governance toolkit
perplexityai/bumblebee - Perplexity AI's Bumblebee framework
AudioMass - Free audio editor in the browser
NeuralNote - AI-powered audio-to-MIDI transcription
nango - Open source unified API for integrations
glance - Self-hosted dashboard with feeds
MerMarkEditor - Markdown editor with Mermaid diagrams
SNACKAI-CoCo-SnowflakeSummit2026 - Summit notes and demos

LinkedIn Posts

Nick Akincilar: Security AI Data Share - AI-powered security data sharing
Nick Akincilar: Photon Reporting BI Share - Photon reporting and BI sharing

Developer Tools & Resources

Slumber - Terminal-based REST/HTTP client
Superset.sh - Apache Superset deployment tool

Video Content

Snowflake AI & Data Playlist - Complete Snowflake AI video series

SNACK-AI: The 2026 Pattern

As we look forward in 2026, SNACK-AI is the architectural pattern for powering AI applications at any scale - from mobile phones and robots to massive enterprise clusters.

SNACK-AI integrates: