Contemporary Analysis

This might just be our most required topic for CANalytics 2026:

Inference Management: What to Do When the Honeymoon is Over and Your AI Now Costs a Fortune to Run

Presented by Tyler Hayes and Ben Zwiener

Meet Tyler Hayes
Tyler Hayes builds AI agents as his day job, and during most weekends too. As Director of AI at Contemporary Analysis, he focuses on AI-enabled workflows and agents for internal and external business applications, and teaches the introductory and advanced AI certificates at the Omaha Data Science Academy.
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He has shipped AI systems into production across data engineering, analytical reporting, chat-over-your-data applications, and agentic coding. New models, new techniques, whatever just dropped — Tyler's usually the one poking at it. With the field outpacing consensus, he'd rather be in the mess than wait for someone else to sort it out.

Meet Benjamin Zwiener
Benjamin Zwiener is a Senior Data and AI Engineer at Contemporary Analysis. Before joining CAN, Benjamin was a Data Engineer at Buildertrend, where he led the team's build-out of a cloud data warehouse and managed much of the surrounding infrastructure. Evaluating and selecting the data tooling his team depended on became a core part of the role, and it's where he developed an eye for architectures that stay efficient as they scale.

His work spans cloud infrastructure, warehouse design, pipeline development, and the practical tradeoffs that come with choosing the right tools for a growing data platform.
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CANalytics 2026 is designed by builders for builders, and we're excited to learn from Tyler and Ben!

See the full speaker lineup and get your tickets today! -> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/canalytics-2026-tickets-1984103081728?aff=facebook

Happy New Year!

2025 was a HUGE year for Contemporary Analysis and the Omaha Data Science Academy. At the start of the year, we had big plans, but even we couldn't foresee the massive growth we've experienced in just one year.

Here's a quick highlight reel:

1. We host our very first CANalytics Summit, a day I had been dreaming up for years. It ran smoother than I ever could’ve hoped, and seeing a room full of data scientists actually mingling, peppering the speakers with questions, and somehow having FUN while digging into the technical weeds? That was a dream come true. (And it is only the beginning!)
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2. The Omaha Data Science Academy is accredited by the Nebraska Department of Education. This isn’t something you just apply for and get. Accreditation is a rigorous, forensic-level evaluation. It started with licensure and a six-month process requiring 13 documents and an entirely new set of procedures and policies. We had to spend two full years executing those processes before we could even apply for accreditation. That application meant even more reports, more paperwork, and yes, creating even more systems that didn’t exist before. (We even had to build a wall to separate offices and buy a Learning Management System to hold all 135 graduates.) After 1,000+ hours, countless evenings, a streak or two of gray hair, and maybe a few tears, we achieved something very few organizations do.

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3. We grew like crazy! In 2025, it took 18 people to run CAN+ODSA (up from 11 in 2024). Full-time, part-time, fractional leaders, and some contractors. Two AI engineers and additional instructors for the ODSA.

We are expecting that number to be 20 soon.

Get ready, 2026, we're coming for you in full force.

Our team is growing!

We’re excited to welcome Robert Wittwer to the CAN leadership team as our new Chief Revenue Officer!

Robert is a proven leader with a track record of turning big goals into even bigger results. Over his career in healthcare software and technology, he’s transformed teams, rebuilt trust across departments, and delivered measurable growth — including leading a $250M business unit to 115% of plan in just 12 months.

He’s known for rolling up his sleeves and making complex problems solvable. At Philips Healthcare, Robert grew a new service line from $4M to $60M in three years and earned multiple Pinnacle Awards — an honor reserved for the top 4% of employees. Later, he built Ascom’s Clinical Consulting Organization from the ground up, earning back-to-back recognition as one of the Top 10 Healthcare Consulting Companies in North America.

Robert brings that same mix of innovation, collaboration, and ex*****on to CAN. His leadership will help us expand our reach, strengthen our client partnerships, and continue building AI and data solutions that actually make business better.

Welcome to the team, Robert — we’re thrilled to have you help lead CAN into what’s next.