25% data executives approve any AI-powered projects: Survey

A recent survey by Wakefield Research, commissioned by data copilot company Prophecy, reveals that enterprise data teams are rapidly embracing Generative AI (GenAI), with many executives leading the charge. According to a survey of 500 US Data and Analytics executives, 25% of leaders approve of any project incorporating AI, while 44% support AI investments with some restrictions. The enthusiasm stems from tangible benefits — 41% of data teams using GenAI report productivity gains of 15-30%, while 46% see increases of 31-50%.

Adoption is accelerating, with 64% of data teams already using GenAI and all surveyed companies planning to implement it. Remarkably, 23% say their GenAI initiatives are fully scaled. The most common applications include automatic data curation (58%), conversational analytics (51%), and data quality management (51%).

However, challenges persist. The most frequently cited obstacle (36%) is the need for better data governance, while 24% struggle with slow data access. Additionally, 36% of organisations require company-wide reviews for all GenAI projects, potentially slowing progress.

Talent shortages also pose difficulties. Most organisations (67%) manage between 100 and 1,000 data sources, supporting an equal number of downstream users. More than half (53%) struggle to hire skilled data engineers, onboard new employees (50%), and scale teams to meet demand (53%).

The survey, conducted between November 22 and December 3, 2024, targeted executives at US companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue.