Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2021

The Journey to Becoming Data-Driven

It has been nearly a full decade since this executive survey was first launched in 2012.

Much progress has been made, but work remains to be done.

The theme for this year’s survey findings might be “dogged optimism despite COVID and culture.”

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have posed few substantial obstacles for Big Data and AI within the participating firms, many of which are in relatively pandemic-resistant industries like banking and healthcare.

It is notable that just under 10% of respondents said their company would spend less on data and AI initiatives because of COVID, and 31% will spend more.

Presumably, data and AI programs have benefitted from increased spending on digital migration initiatives by companies during the pandemic.

Cultural change, however, seems a more significant barrier to long-term success.

Over the years this survey has been conducted, we have commented on the challenge of changing corporate cultures in a more data-driven direction.

This year’s findings exhibit that challenge to an even greater degree.

All questions relating to the long-term progress of corporate data initiatives exhibited declines from 2019 and 2020 levels, a disappointing development.

Less than half of companies noted success in these key metrics of progress:

• Driving innovation with data
• Competing on data and analytics
• Managing data as a business asset
• Forging a data culture
• Creating a data-driven organization

In the latter two categories, just under a quarter say they have achieved these cultural goals.

In addition, a slightly increased percentage from last year - now 92% - attributes the “principal challenge to becoming data-driven” to people, business processes, and culture, with only 8% identifying technology limitations as the barrier.