Michael Carducci - Enterprise AI Needs a Semantic Layer

Micheal is coming in person

6pm Pizza
6:30 Presentation
7:15 Group Discussion
7:45 Door prizes

Building Deterministic, Accurate, and Cost-Effective AI in the Enterprise with a Semantic Layer

Enterprise AI is probabilistic, but your business semantics shouldn’t be. A semantic layer makes meaning explicit so models and agents stop guessing what your data, APIs, and business concepts mean. That improves accuracy, reduces cost, and keeps multi-agent systems aligned without adding another brittle AI framework. The advantage isn’t a new tool—it’s designing systems where meaning is deterministic.

Michael Carducci spent years learning to see things as they actually are; first as a magician, then as a software architect, now as both simultaneously. And somehow that’s not even the whole story. He’s the author of Mastering Software Architecture (Apress, 2025) and is currently writing The Semantic Layer (Packt, 2026). He has spent over 25 years following interesting problems; through roles from individual contributor to CTO and back again, across industries and continents. As a speaker, he applies the same toolkit he uses in close-up magic: attention, misdirection, timing, storytelling, and the instinct to take the long way around when that’s where the truth lives. Audiences at hundreds of conferences across four continents have described his talks as the kind that change how you think about a problem rather than just what you know about it. He also makes YouTube videos about technology and curiosity with his wife Kate, because some ideas are too important (or too interesting!) to leave only in conference rooms.

SALT is a non-profit serving the Utah technology community since 1999, supported by generous sponsors Tek Systems, STG, Lucid, Fortify Financial, and O.C. Tanner Tech.