Beyond the Data Mesh Illusion: Designing Modern AI-augmented Lakehouses to Bridge the Gap Between Theory and Practice

ArXi:2605.27131v1 Announce Type: cross Enterprise data platforms face an enduring tension between domain self-service and holistic governance. The data mesh paradigm proposed decentralized domain ownership as a remedy, but pure implementations frequently underdeliver: teams inherit new responsibilities without the platform maturity, tooling, or coordination mechanisms needed to exercise them effectively. This paper argues that the flexibility-versus-control trade-off can be relaxed through an AI-augmented hub-and-spoke model layered on a modern lakehouse architecture.