Companies Are Failing in Their Efforts to Become Data-Driven

The percentage of firms identifying themselves as being data-driven has declined in each of the past 3 years — from 37.1% in 2017 to 32.4% in 2018 to 31.0% this year. These sobering results and declines come in spite of increasing investment in big data and AI initiatives. Whatever the reasons for the failure to achieve transformational results from data initiatives, the amount of data continues to rise in business and society. Analytical decisions and actions continue to be generally superior to those based on intuition and experience. The companies in the survey are investing heavily in big data and analytics. In short, the need for data-driven organizations and cultures isn’t going away.