Building the Real-Time Backbone for Agentic AI with Confluent and Google Cloud

Sean is a Senior Director, Product Management - AI Strategy at Confluent where he works on AI strategy and thought leadership. Sean's been an academic, startup founder, and Googler. He has published works covering a wide range of topics from AI to quantum computing. Sean also hosts the popular engineering podcasts Software Engineering Daily and Software Huddle.

Merlin works with strategic partners to create and execute on their Digital Transformation and Generative AI vision. He drives key AI initiatives with the Google Partner Ecosystem, developing strategic co-innovation partnerships in the fields of Generative & Predictive AI, Data/Analytics and Web3. Focusing on co-innovation with ISV and GSI partners as they run, integrate and build on GCP across the ML Lifecycle, Merlin also works closely with Product Management to shape the direction of Google's AI and Analytics offerings from a Cloud, Edge and Device perspective. Before joining Google, Merlin was Chief Innovation Architect at SAP where he led SAP Intelligent Technologies strategy, GTM and Solution Architecture.

Dustin Shammo is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Confluent, specializing in technical strategy for the Google Cloud partnership. With deep expertise in legacy systems, cloud computing, and analytics, Dustin empowers organizations to unlock the value of real-time data streaming. He holds a Master of Science from Boston University and is dedicated to guiding customers in building mission-critical systems that drive business innovation.