Report

CDO Insights 2024:

Charting a Course
to AI Readiness
CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Contents
Executive Summary 3

Key Findings 4

An AI Boom 5

Spotlight: AI and ROI 6

Readiness and Roadblocks 7

Spotlight: What a Data Leader Does 9

The State of Data Management 10

Spotlight: Who’s Footing the Bill 12

Conclusion 13

Methodological Notes 14

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Executive Summary
As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more powerful—and businesses struggle to keep pace—the race
to implement the technology is heating up: more than two in five data leaders (45%) work at companies that have
already integrated generative AI into their business processes, and 54% expect to implement this tech. But this
valuable tool is only as good as the quality of the data available. Among data leaders implementing or planning to
implement generative AI, the quality of data (42%) is the top data-related obstacle to the adoption of generative
AI and large language models (LLMs) reveals a survey of 600 data leaders from companies with $500M+ in
revenue from the U.S., EU, and APAC regions conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Informatica.

To address this, data leaders are making data investments to overcome AI roadblocks. Not only do 78% of data
leaders predict their organization’s level of investments will increase in 2024—including 33% who predict
significant increases—but 100% of data leaders specifically plan to invest in data management capabilities
to support their data strategy priorities. This can be a double-edged sword: among those predicting data
management investment, 58% expect to use five or more tools for this crucial part of their work—tools that 49%
have half or fewer available as cloud-hosted services. And data sources are expanding as well: 41% admit they’re
juggling 1,000 or more data sources—a number 79% expect to increase in 2024.

As a result, AI, its challenges and data quality are all rising on data leaders’ list of priorities for the year ahead.
Top data strategy priorities for 2024 include delivering reliable and consistent data fit for generative AI (39%),
improving data-driven culture and data literacy (39%), and improving governance over data and data processes
(38%). These priorities all highlight the need to push beyond implementing and toward maximizing AI’s efficacy and
making the most of their investments—a point made even more clear by the 43% using AI readiness as a top metric
for measuring their data strategy effectiveness.

Given the pressure to capitalize on AI, as well as deliver on a wide range of data priorities and must-haves, data
leaders’ plans to invest in new tools may be seen as a relief for CDOs struggling with an ever-expanding portfolio of
responsibilities and duties. But just because leaders agree on data management as a solution does not mean they
have aligned on how to use it—nor is it clear that they have the resources necessary to implement it effectively.

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Key Findings

Data Leaders Are Capitalizing on Generative AI

have already implemented generative AI, with another

45% 54% planning to do so

of AI adopters plan to use AI to address their data

99%
management needs

78% of respondents
predict increased
of AI adopters have encountered roadblocks on data investment,
99% their AI journey demonstrating an
interest in solutions
that solve AI adoption
list AI readiness as a top metric for measuring their challenges.
43% data strategy effectiveness

Next Steps for AI and Data Management

would consider upskilling or reskilling their employees

48% on AI or machine learning

predict increased data investment in 2024, marking an

78% interest in solutions

plan to invest in data management capabilities—

100% indicating that this is perhaps the core solution for
their data strategy woes

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

An AI Boom
As generative AI becomes the new normal, data strategies must keep up, as well as priorities around adoption
and investments. An impressive 45% have already adopted generative AI (including 50% in the U.S. and 48% in
the UK/EU) and another 54% anticipate doing so, including 36% who expect to adopt it within two years—which
explains why delivering reliable and consistent data fit for generative AI (39%) is the most commonly cited main
priority for organizations’ data strategies. More than two in five (41%) even rank generative AI as a top priority for
data strategies from a broader market perspective with AI governance/ethics not far behind—it tops the list among
APAC data leaders (41%).

To accomplish this, data leaders who have implemented or plan to implement AI are considering a variety of
tactics, especially prompt engineering with third-party LLMs (57%). A majority (51%) are evaluating or plan to
evaluate open-source LLMs, with 48% implementing or planning to implement retrieval-augmented generation
(RAG) with LLMs. While fine-tuning public LLMs (44%) and customizing LLMs (43%) are less popular, they are still
being considered by more than two in five data leaders.

But adopting generative AI has not been easy. All who are adopting or planning to adopt generative AI (more than
99%) have encountered challenges, including quality of data (42%, led by 49% of those in the U.S.) and data
privacy & protection (40%)—familiar big picture issues data leaders face elsewhere. And AI comes with its own
unique challenges as well, including AI ethics (38%), quantity of domain-specific data for training and fine-tuning
of LLMs (38%), and AI governance (36%). Other AI challenges include regulatory compliance (33%), avoiding bias
(32%), and preparing unstructured data to work with LLMs (32%).

But as much as generative AI is proving difficult to implement, data leaders foresee the effort being worth it,
especially given their emphasis on data management. Among those implementing or planning to implement
generative AI, 73% use or plan to use this tech to improve time to value with faster insights from data; another
66% are looking to drive more productivity through automation and augmentation, while three in five (60%) use or
plan to use generative AI to enable more self-service and data democratization. This transformative technology is
not without its challenges, but moving forward, data leaders’ optimism for its use belies both its promise as well as
the need to advance data management and other data quality priorities.

Top Generative AI Challenges

Quality of Data 42%

Data Privacy & Protection 40%

AI Ethics 38%

Quantity of domain-specific data 38%

for training & fine tuning of LLMs

AI Governance 36%

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Spotlight: AI and ROI

AI has permeated how data leaders measure their ROI. At 43%, improving readiness of data for AI and analytics
initiatives is the most common metric for measuring data strategy effectiveness. This metric is emerging as ROI
continues to impact how data leaders view the big picture: 45% cite an inability to justify ROI for budget as a main
organizational obstacle to executing their data strategy—marking AI as a potential solution to
this frustration.

Metrics for Measuring Data Strategy Effectiveness

Improving readiness of data for AI & analytics initiatives 43%

Improving data literacy across organization 42%

Improving quality of data 40%

Improving the efficiency of data management & analytics activities 40%

Improving the timeliness of data delivery 39%

Improving how data is utilized in business decision making &

36%
operational processes

Ensuring data privacy & protection 33%

Regulatory compliance risk 30%

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Readiness and Roadblocks Other priorities include improving data privacy and
security (36%), as well as driving more automation
Data leaders are encountering several roadblocks in their data management and governance
to their data management priorities—calling the processes (34%).
effectiveness of their investments into question. And
as the state of data management grows more complex These data-specific priorities align with data leaders’
and demanding, so do the demands placed on data major business priorities for 2024, which include
leaders. A full 99% cite data- or tech-related obstacles improving security and privacy of their data (39%)
to realizing their data strategy, with several issues and improving business agility by adopting new
emerging to sound the alarm. Not only do 38% grapple technologies (39%), as well as improving customer
with an increasing volume and variety of data—41% experience (38%). This highlights how data leaders are
already struggle with 1,000+ sources and 79% expect aligning their big picture goals with an emphasis on
that number to increase in 2024—but they have to data to capitalize on their efforts and convert data into
contend with that data being in higher demand: an real growth.
increasing number of data consumers (39%) tops data But while these are some top data leaders’ priorities,
leaders’ list of data/tech obstacles to realizing their data they’re just one part of the ever-widening swath
strategy. Additionally, 30% cite being unable to scale of problems they need to address. This includes
data delivery when and where needed, highlighting that tech- and data-related issues, such as the inability
it is not just the data, but the consumer, that is making to minimize risks related to industry regulations and
data leaders’ jobs more difficult. compliance laws (35%), which could be complicating
their frustration with their inability to manage access
to private and sensitive data (33%); 34% recognize their
Data- and Tech-Related Roadblocks
lack of complete view and understanding of their data
to Realizing Data Strategy
estate, many are realizing it is too fractured: 33% cite
Increasing number of data consumers 42% data or application silos and fragmentation among
their top obstacles. But perhaps more surprising than
Increasing volume & variety of data 40% their technical roadblocks are the 98% who admit
to organizational obstacles holding back their data
Inability to minimize risks related to
industry regulations & compliance laws 38% strategy, including lack of support from business
Lack of complete view &
leadership (45% globally, including 51% in the UK/EU),
understanding of data estate 38% inability to justify ROI for budget (45%), and lack of
cooperation/alignment across business units (44%)—
all of which are more prevalent than any single tech or
These roadblocks come as data leaders juggle their
data obstacle. AI offers tremendous promise for data’s
main 2024 data strategy priorities, including delivering
potential, but aligning an entire organization behind
reliable and consistent data that is fit for generative AI
it will become increasingly difficult as data leaders
(39% globally, and 45% in the EU/UK), improving data-
contend with multiple priorities as well as multiple
driven culture and data literacy (39%) and improving
roadblocks.
governance over data and data processes (38%).

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A full 99% cite data- or tech-related obstacles to realizing

their data strategy, with several issues emerging to
sound the alarm.

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 CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Spotlight: What a Data Leader Does

Data leaders are tasked with a variety of responsibilities, with data
analytics and insights (30%), data privacy, protection and compliance
(29%), and data strategy and governance (29%) the most likely to be ranked
top—but not far behind are a multitude of other, more organizational
responsibilities, including improving data literacy and data culture (28%),
enabling stakeholder collaboration (27%) and enabling data sharing
& democratization (26% globally, including 30% in the U.S.). Other top
responsibilities include delivering usable, trusted data for decision-making
(25%), and defining and measuring data-related performance metrics (25%
globally, including 31% in the UK/EU), as well as enabling AI initiatives (24%)
and managing and mitigating datarelated risks (24%); 21% (including 28%
in APAC) cite change management for data initiatives.

Data Leaders Top Responsibilities

30% 29% 29% 28% 27% 26%

Data Data privacy, Data strategy & Improving data Enabling Enabling data
analytics & protection and governance literacy & data stakeholder sharing &
insights compliance culture collaboration democratization

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

The State of Data Management

Data leaders are investing heavily in data management to make the most
of generative AI, as well as their data strategy. Top data management
capabilities being invested in to support their data strategy priorities
include data privacy & protection (45%), data quality & observability
(41%), and data integration & engineering (37%). And even when these
58%
investments are not directly part of an AI strategy, they emerge as part
of organizations’ emphasis on this technology: among those predicting
increased data investments in 2024, data readiness for AI is a primary 58% of those who predict
driver for more than 2 in 5 (41%). data management investment
will need five or more data
management tools to support
But data readiness isn’t the only driver: it’s outranked by other their priorities
considerations including improving data governance (45%), improving data
privacy and security (45%), improving data literacy (43%), and increasing
data demands in the organization (41%). All these competing priorities
can lead to more tools than data leaders can manage: 58% of those
who predict data management investment will need five or more data Top Areas for
management tools to support their priorities. Moreover, while 51% of data Reskilling or Upskilling
leaders say a majority of their data management tools are available as
cloud-hosted services, nearly as many (49%) admit half or fewer offer that AI & Machine 48%
capability—pointing not only to a bloat in the number of tools used, but a Learning
lack of progress in their functionality. Data
Analytics & 44%
It’s possible that data leaders already have a solution to their AI challenges Visualization
as it relates to staffing: half (48%) would consider upskilling or reskilling
Data
their staff on AI and machine learning. Indeed, data leaders are keen Engineering 41%
on making the most of their staff’s ability to learn and reskill, with other
areas of interest including data analytics & visualization (44%), data Data
Governance
40%
engineering (41%), and data governance (40%); nearly as many would
consider upskilling or reskilling their staff in enterprise architecture (36%)
and data literacy (36%), as well as data ops (34%). Perhaps most tellingly, Enterprise
Architecture 36%
not a single data leader said they had no plans for upskilling or reskilling
initiatives at their organization.
Data Literacy 36%

DataOps 34%

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Top data management capabilities being invested in to

support data strategy priorities include data privacy &
protection (45%), data quality & observability (41%), and
data integration & engineering (37%).

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Spotlight: Who’s Footing the Bill

Data investments come from a variety of sources, but centralized IT is
bearing the brunt of it, with more than two in three data leaders (68%)
identifying centralized IT as investing more than 20% of their data
management budget; only data management organizations come close
(59%), with other departments more likely to invest 20% or less.

68% 59%

68% of data leaders identified 59% of data leaders

centralized IT as investing identified data management
more than 20% of their data organizations as investing
management budget more than 20% of their data
management budget

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

Conclusion Methodological Notes

With AI and data management both high priorities for data leaders’ 2024 The Informatica Survey
strategies and beyond, it’s crucial these two go hand in hand: realizing was conducted by
value from AI means nothing without data management, and AI can be Wakefield Research (www.
a powerful way to achieve data management goals. As data leaders wakefieldresearch.com)
consider both roadblocks as well as the tech- and data-related challenges, among 600 Data Leaders
investments in data management can operate in tandem with AI to achieve (defined as CDOs, CDAOs, and
their data management goals. CAOs) from companies with
$500M+ in revenue, between
It will not be easy: with 58% already managing 5+ tools just to wrangle the
October 5th and October 18th,
1,000+ data sources 41% are utilizing—and as data quality and the volume
2023, using an email invitation
of data consumers exacerbate the strain placed on data leaders—the
and an online survey. Quotas
need for a single consolidated solution to manage all this data becomes
were set for 200 U.S., 200 UK/
abundantly clear. Relying on existing staff to upskill or reskill to manage
EU (UK, France, Germany),
AI, as 48% of data leaders would consider, can allow them to make strides
and 200 APAC (Japan, Korea,
in achieving their AI and data goals—but that won’t be enough without
China, Singapore, Australia,
providing these employees with the proper tools.
Malaysia, India).
With AI and data management, data leaders can recognize that it is not one
Results of any sample are
driving the other, but rather that the two go hand in hand - and making the
subject to sampling variation.
most of both means transformative change for these technologies, leaders’
The magnitude of the
strategies, and the future of their organizations.
variation is measurable and
is affected by the number of
interviews and the level of
About Wakefield Research the percentages expressing
the results. For the interviews
Wakefield Research is a leading, independent provider of quantitative,
conducted in this particular
qualitative, and hybrid market research and market intelligence. Wakefield
study, the chances are 95 in
Research supports the world’s most prominent brands and agencies,
100 that a survey result does
including 50 of the Fortune 100, in 90 countries. Our work is regularly
not vary, plus or minus, by
featured in media.
more than 6.9 percentage
points in the U.S., UK/EU,
and APAC from the result
that would be obtained
if interviews had been
conducted with all
persons in the universe
represented by
the sample.

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CDO Insights 2024: Charting a Course to AI Readiness

About Us
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