For enterprise knowledge groups, GenAI expectations are sky-high, and a brand new survey of knowledge and analytics executives by Wakefield Analysis on behalf of knowledge copilot firm Prophecy finds that administration usually leads the cost.
1 / 4 of executives (25 p.c) say their leaders will greenlight any venture “with AI as a core part,” whereas the most important group (44 p.c) are a bit extra cautious, seeing the necessity for AI funding whereas placing at the very least some guardrails on the method.
Excessive expectations are fueled by outcomes. The survey discovered that amongst knowledge groups utilizing GenAI, practically half (41 p.c) are seeing general knowledge supply productiveness progress of 15-30 p.c, with 46 p.c reporting jumps of 31-50 p.c.
Given common GenAI productiveness features of 25 p.c, based on a study by Goldman Sachs final 12 months, these outcomes counsel knowledge groups stand to achieve at the very least as a lot, or extra, from GenAI than different elements of the enterprise.
Adoption is transferring quick. Total, 64 p.c of knowledge groups are already utilizing GenAI, and each group surveyed has, at minimal, plans to make use of GenAI sooner or later. A outstanding 23 p.c say their GenAI efforts are already “totally scaled.” The most typical use case is computerized knowledge curation (58 p.c), with conversational analytics (51percent) and knowledge exams and high quality (51 p.c) operating an in depth second and third.
Regardless of GenAI enthusiasm, knowledge executives see obstacles to adoption as properly. The difficulty mostly cited (36 p.c) is the necessity for higher knowledge governance, whereas 24 p.c say quicker entry to knowledge is essentially the most important hurdle. A considerable minority (36 p.c) say all GenAI initiatives require overview at a company-wide degree, probably bottlenecking innovation and growth at these organizations.
Hiring is one other roadblock. Most organizations (67 p.c) have between 100 and 1,000 knowledge sources, and 60 p.c present knowledge to between 100 and 1,000 downstream customers. Hiring and coaching employees to wrangle all this knowledge is a continuing problem. Greater than half of organizations (53 p.c) battle to search out and rent extremely expert knowledge engineers, whereas 50 p.c say it’s a problem to onboard and ramp new staff, and 53 p.c to scale group capabilities to satisfy rising knowledge calls for.
“GenAI has clearly landed in knowledge groups and organizations are already getting worth. Over the subsequent few years, GenAI will remodel knowledge operations prime to backside — from knowledge administration to knowledge transformation to knowledge integration, and every thing in between. It’s a secular shift within the trade,” stated Prophecy CEO Raj Bains. “The problem is to seize the worth of GenAI whereas sustaining the very best requirements of safety, governance and reliability amid a worldwide scarcity of expertise. Moderately than attempt to construct every thing from scratch, essentially the most profitable organizations will speed up their deployments by making sensible use of business knowledge options powered by GenAI and confirmed to work in Fortune 500-class environments.”
The survey was carried out by Wakefield Research amongst 500 US knowledge and knowledge analytics executives with a minimal seniority of Director, at corporations with a minimal annual income of $1B USD, between November twenty second and December third, 2024, utilizing an e mail invitation and a web based survey.
For a deep dive into the findings, be a part of Prophecy’s session The Impression of GenAI on Knowledge Groups at Gartner Knowledge & Analytics Summit 2025 in Orlando, March 5, 2025. To obtain the complete report, go to the Prophecy web site here.
