Danilo Sato

Danilo helps our clients win with data and AI by delivering value-led transformations. As the Global VP of AI, Danilo leads the global team that defines Thoughtworks' services, assets, accelerators, go-to-market, and partnerships strategy to help organisations get AI-ready. He advises executive leaders on topics ranging from data and AI strategy and governance to building the products and platforms that bring the strategy to life. 

A former member of Thoughtworks’ Global Technology team and Office of the CTO, Danilo was responsible for driving our technology strategy execution. That includes developing and sharing our unique approaches to data and AI such as Data Mesh and Continuous Delivery for Machine Learning (CD4ML). His technical background as an engineer and architect allows him to bridge the gap between business leaders and delivery teams. With experience working across multiple industries – retail, travel, CPG, media, financial services, healthcare, telecom and public sector – he brings innovative ideas to solve our client’s most complex problems.

As an acknowledged thought-leader in the data space, Danilo has published the Devops in Practice book, the seminal article defining CD4ML, and was a reviewer and early contributor to the pioneering Data Mesh book. Danilo has spoken at conferences around the world on topics such as Agentic AI, scaling AI, Data Mesh, MDM, data architecture, data products, machine learning and MLOps.

Danilo was recognized as one of the most influential individuals driving AI adoption across the UK, placing #46 in the AI 100 UK 2025 list. He was also named by DataIQ as one of the most influential people in data for three years in a row from 2022-2024, and was a key member of the team working with ITV on their Data Mesh implementation, which won the DataIQ ‘Shared data, shared culture’ award in 2022.