Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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*Free: Build an AI Data Analysis Agent in Codex* clickhubspot.com/l1u3
It's 12pm on a Friday and leadership wants to know why customer retention dropped last week. They want the answer by 2pm. A few years ago that was impossible. Now it's a 9-minute job.

In this episode, Kipp sits down with data scientist Sundas Khalid (12 years in analytics, ex-Google) to walk through exactly how agentic AI handles a real data analysis task end to end: load a messy CSV, run a root cause analysis on a retention drop, build a cohort analysis, and generate a leadership-ready deck. Sundas also shares the human judgment, validation, and critical-thinking steps that AI still can't replace, and why data analysts aren't going anywhere.
LInks
sundaskhalid.com
youtube.com/@SundasKhalid
openai.com/codex

📌 WHAT WE COVER:
→ The 2-hour leadership deadline scenario and how AI changes it
→ Why Codex and ChatGPT have come a long way for data analysis
→ The 3 fundamentals before you trust any AI data output
→ Data permissions and security: never upload company data to the wrong tool
→ Defining a clear problem before you run the analysis
→ Validating AI numbers: does the math even make sense?
→ Live root cause analysis: finding the retention drop driver
→ How AI built a cohort analysis from raw customer data
→ Auto-generating a leadership deck from a CSV
→ Why the human element matters more than ever, not less
→ Whether AI will replace data analysts (and what actually changes)
→ Where agentic analytics is heading in the next 5-10 years

🎙️ Host: Kipp Bodnar
Guest: Sundas Khalid, Data Scientist (ex-Google)

⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 — The 12pm Friday Data Emergency
01:00 — Why Codex for Data Analysis? The Honest Take
02:00 — Getting Codex Set Up (It's Easier Than You Think)
03:00 — The Dataset: Customer Retention Explained
05:00 — The Scenario: Why Did Retention Drop, Answer by 2pm
06:00 — Writing the Prompt: Cohort Analysis + Leadership Deck
07:00 — The 3 Fundamentals of AI Data Analysis
09:00 — Validating the Numbers: Does the Math Make Sense?
10:00 — Codex Goes to Work: Permissions and Setup
12:00 — The Pre-Run Result: Finding the Root Cause
13:00 — Root Cause Found: The Mobile App Crash
14:00 — How Much Data Do You Actually Need?
15:00 — Finding Where the Data Lives (The Real Hard Part)
16:00 — Why AI Is Light Years From Replacing Humans
17:00 — The Intern Analogy: AI Crunches, You Judge
18:00 — The Creative Question-Asker Advantage
19:00 — Building the Leadership Deck from the Analysis
21:00 — Reading the Cohort Analysis Tabs
24:00 — Learning Data Analysis With AI as a Tutor
25:00 — The Final Deck and the "Always Have a Plan" Pro Tip
28:00 — Clean Data, Missing Values, and the Big Mistake
29:00 — The Future: Agentic Analytics as a Core Skill
30:00 — Your Jobs Are Safe (But They're Changing)

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#Codex #DataAnalysis #AItools #AIforMarketers #DataAnalyst #AgenticAI #ChatGPT #MarketingAgainstTheGrain #CohortAnalysis #AIanalytics #DataScience #HubSpot


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Host Links:
📲Kipp Bodnar, twitter.com/kippbodnar
📲Kieran Flanagan, twitter.com/searchbrat

‘Marketing Against The Grain’ is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.

About the Show
Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan Hubspot's SVP of Marketing, lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.