Ataccama: Businesses will fail without AI adoption, 72% of data experts say

The Ataccama Data Trust Report 2025: Winning AI Strategies for Data Visionaries highlights the criticality of data to successful enterprise-wide AI adoption:

• 77% cite increasing operational efficiency as the main strategic and spending priority for 2025
• 67% admit AI solutions are still not widely integrated across their organization 
• Over half of enterprise data leaders say improving data quality and accuracy is their organization's top data management priority next year

BOSTON, Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Data leaders continue to face ongoing challenges with the rapid evolution of technology as 74% of organizations report they have implemented some AI-based solutions, yet only 33% have embedded them company-wide. In the first of its forthcoming Ataccama Data Trust Report series, Ataccama, an AI-powered data management company, explores this conflict between expected benefits of new technologies and the hurdles to integration through the lens of how well leaders are able to trust their own organization's data and fuel successful AI-powered practices.

Data leaders anticipate AI-led benefits but struggle with institutional constraints

The findings in the Ataccama Data Trust Report 2025: Winning AI Strategies for Data Visionaries indicate blockers for AI adoption include data privacy and security concerns (43%), high maintenance costs (37%) and steep implementation costs (33%). Despite this, the consequences of not implementing AI weigh heavily on 54% of all respondents and, in particular, 72% of data strategy decision-makers, who worry it will cost them their competitive edge. Among the anticipated benefits of AI, 57% believe it will transform customer services (57%); this was pronounced in smaller organizations with annual revenues under $1 billion (73%) and in enterprises at more advanced stages of AI adoption (71%).

Data leaders are also optimistic about AI's impact for transforming product and services innovation (42%) and marketing and sales (39%), which indicates why exploring AI is a data management priority for data strategy primary decision-makers (54%). Trustworthy AI relies on clean, quality data, so it's unsurprising that heads of data cite improving data quality and accuracy (51%) to be an immediate priority, and also report that managing large volumes of data (30%) is among the top challenges CDOs face in their organizations today.

Mike McKee, Chief Executive Officer, Ataccama, said, "Do not ignore the critical role your data plays in delivering on the promise of AI. Businesses that don't leverage AI with data they can trust will fail. The winners have already established data trust to support AI-powered initiatives to improve customer experience, product innovation, and sales and marketing performance."

Insurers anticipate competitive and efficiency gains from AI

While data quality is a top data management priority for 51% of respondents, it is significantly higher for insurance companies at 68%. Insurers view improved operational efficiency (68%) as a key driver for AI adoption, also reporting that increased efficiency and productivity (74%) and increased competitive advantage (51%) are some of the top anticipated benefits of AI usage. Although data leaders in insurance have a high level of executive support for their programs, a number do report a degree of resistance from COOs, Chief Digital Officers, and Chief Analytics Officers (15% each).

Legacy systems throttle AI initiatives in healthcare organizations

Healthcare organizations are particularly likely to face AI-related challenges. While nearly half (45%) rank AI implementation as a hurdle, 50% of healthcare respondents struggle to keep up with rapid technological advances overall with integrating legacy systems (63%) a particular obstacle in this sector. Despite these challenges, their outlook remains positive with 58% viewing AI as a pivotal tool for predictive analytics, enhancing data analysis and decision-making processes.

With the high volume of sensitive data collected in healthcare organizations, ethical considerations are a key issue for respondents in this industry, ranking as a concern for 39% compared to one-fifth (19%) of all respondents. This does not interfere with implementation, however, as the primary drivers for AI adoption in healthcare are considered to be improved operational efficiency (52%) and enhanced decision-making (42%), while for a quarter (26%) of respondents, reducing human error is a key motivation. The primary anticipated benefit of adoption is innovation (45%).

Read the full report: https://www.ataccama.com/ebook/data-trust-report 

Methodology: An online quantitative research survey was undertaken by Hanover Research in September and October 2024 with 300 qualified participants (U.S. n=150; Canada n=50; U.K. n=100). Respondents were aged 35+ and employed full-time within organizations generating revenue over $500 million in the banking/finance, business services, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, retail, software, and telecommunications industries. Participants were senior leaders or heads of department with a data-led function and had some or full responsibility for technology decision-making and data strategy.

About Ataccama
Ataccama enables organizations to accelerate business initiatives with high quality data they trust using Ataccama ONE, a unified data trust platform. Combining data quality, lineage, observability, governance and master data management in a single solution, Ataccama supports hundreds of organizations around the world to increase revenue, decrease costs and mitigate risk. Ataccama was one of only three software companies to be recognized by Gartner as a Market Leader for Augmented Data Quality in 2024. Learn more at www.ataccama.com.

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SOURCE Ataccama