Semantic Data Europe 2026
Programme Update: First Sessions Announced
This year we’re introducing a number of interactive sessions where attendees can ask questions and explore key issues with others in the room. Designed to complement the wider programme, they create space for open exchange and shared thinking.
Semantics in the Age of AI: Questions Practitioners Must Answer in 2026
Context and challenge
As AI systems become the primary way people and applications access information, the semantic layer (ontologies, knowledge graphs, and contextual metadata) has moved from nice‑to‑have to critical infrastructure. Yet many organizations still struggle to decide when to invest in graphs, how to manage change, and how to align semantic work with data and AI teams.
Meeting the challenge
This collective roundtable discussion focuses on answers to questions that increasingly determine whether semantic initiatives deliver real value or remain science projects.
Join the conversation, share your experiences and learn what others are doing.
Developing AI-enabled political intelligence at Dods Group
Since first presenting Creating Political Intelligence - A Journey Through Data at Dods in June 2024, Dods has moved from laying data foundations to operating live, AI-supported capabilities that are reshaping how political intelligence is structured, discovered and used.
Over the past two years, work to model the UK political landscape at Dods has focused on strengthening taxonomies, extending its ontology to capture increasingly rich relationships, and integrating AI through a mix of in-house development and specialist partners. This has enabled the launch of Dods Answers, an AI-powered search capability, alongside AI-supported auto-tagging across expanding content pipelines.
The challenges and how they were met
- Challenges that arise when applying AI to complex political data.
- Data strategies used to support a wide range of client needs.
- The shift from manual tagging to an auto-tag-first approach.
- Evolving editorial and governance roles of content specialists.
- The next phase of the Dods architecture: aligning systems around shared taxonomies and ontologies, with the longer-term move towards a Dods knowledge graph.
Focusing on:
- Developing and operationalising taxonomies and ontologies.
- Embedding AI into content discovery and tagging workflows.
- Practical lessons from evolving taxonomy and ontology practices.
- How structured relationships in data support AI-driven services.
Ian Davis, Taxonomy Manager, Dods Group
“Molto Legato”: harnessing 500 years of music metadata
Mapping a database of classical music for use in the music/media industry involves a thorough knowledge of the subject and its many, unique pitfalls. The anatomy of a standard classical music track title, highlighting how it differs from a standard pop music track title and how it contains multiple levels of complex metadata.
Based on years of experience at Universal Music Group, [Integral], Apple Music Classical and the BBC, three case studies from Neura, an innovative knowledge structure based on work authorship, arrangements/versions, intellectual ownership, and completions/additions. Plus, a first-time glimpse of ‘Passports’, the new in-house tool used to tag and map all BBC music assets.
Dr Vera Brozzoni, Metadata Manager, BBC
Semantic Data Community Forum with Viktor Mayer-Schönberger
Over the past three years of the Semantic Data Conference, the community has shown itself to be comprised of strong, independent thinkers who are comfortable operating at the vanguard of this field.
This year, we are honored to welcome Viktor Mayer‑Schönberger as keynote speaker. Viktor is a professor of Internet governance and regulation at the University of Oxford and the author of several award‑winning books, including Big Data, Reinventing Capitalism, Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology, and his most recent work, Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI. Alongside his research and teaching, he has advised governments, international organizations, and major corporations.
We invite you to engage with Professor Mayer‑Schönberger directly in an open Q&A and dialogue. This is an opportunity to bring your toughest questions, challenge assumptions, and explore together how semantics, governance, and AI will shape the years ahead.
More to follow….
Click here to register