Dive Brief:
- Business leaders are overconfident in their organizations’ data capabilities, according to a Capital One report found. The bank commissioned Morning Consult to survey nearly 4,000 business leaders and tech practitioners.
- A majority of business leaders surveyed — 87% — believed their organization has a modern data ecosystem capable of deploying AI at scale. But only 41% reported successfully scaling AI-based solutions.
- IT professionals were less sanguine. Seven in 10 technologists surveyed spent up to four hours a day resolving data problems, conducting quality checks and correcting errors. “The amount of time tech practitioners spend addressing data issues indicates that companies may be overlooking key elements of data management,” Terren Peterson, VP of data engineering at Capital One, said.
Dive Insight:
Enterprise AI ambitions have given data technologists an opportunity to drive the IT agenda and boost the profile of data operations.
As business leaders steer IT investments toward infrastructure to support AI adoption, executives with data and AI attached to their titles are becoming more commonplace, according to West Monroe.
“There’s a big push right now around data products and tools that we need to have for data product managers in the organization,” Peterson told CIO Dive.
While executives understand the importance of data, they don’t have an accurate read on organizational readiness. Four in 5 business leaders have an easy time locating, understanding and using the data they need, the survey found. Yet only 35% said their organization has strong enough support and training to foster a healthy data culture.
“Business leaders are making the connection back to data,” Peterson said. “If you don’t invest in the tools and personnel, it’s going to be hard to do AI and ML – you could potentially put a whole lot into your AI strategy, but if the data isn’t ready to go, it’s not going to be worth it.”
Leadership is important, too.
“You need to have a chief data officer or someone at the top that is competing for strategy within the company,” Peterson said.
Building a culture around data hygiene and governance is the key to getting it right the first time so someone else doesn’t end up spending half of their week fixing data problems, he added.
Capital One’s technology playbook began with cloud modernization and an enterprisewide platform strategy. The bank democratized access to machine learning tools last year as it leaned in on AI capabilities. Evident ranked Capital One second in AI adoption among banks behind JPMorgan Chase this year.
The company also solidified its data and AI leadership in the last two years, adding three executives positions to its team: SVP and head of AI product, chief scientist and head of enterprise AI and SVP of AI foundations.
“You need to have a chief data officer or someone at the top that is competing for strategy within the company,” Peterson told CIO Dive.
Data leadership builds a culture around data hygiene, governance and getting it right the first time so someone else doesn’t end up spending half of their week fixing data problems, he added.
Leaders are in relative agreement on what their organizations lack in terms of culture and expertise. Only 36% of tech practitioners said their organization has the skills to implement complex AI projects. The percentage of business leaders who agree was 47%.
