AI Leads Corporate Data Priorities, But Worries Outweigh Progress

By Marianna Kantor, CMO at Esri

My article was originally posted here on WhereNext.

Big data persists as a top-of-mind concern for business leaders, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise. Most companies now lump traditional data analytics, big data, and AI together in their strategies, since all help businesses make sense of the data explosion they’re experiencing.

These findings come from New Vantage Partners’ recently released annual survey of how large corporations view data. The Harvard Business Review (limited access) summarized the report with some encouraging and worrying findings.

On the positive side, 73 percent of respondents reported having achieved measurable value from initiatives involving data analytics, big data, and AI. On the negative side, nearly 80 percent of the executives who responded said they fear disruption or displacement.

In short, they fear their companies won’t move fast enough to compete with upstarts steeped in a data-driven culture. A full 99 percent of the executives surveyed say they are shifting to become data-driven, but only one-third have achieved the objective.