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 mission “with AI as a core element,” whereas the biggest group (44 p.c) are a bit extra cautious, seeing the necessity for AI funding whereas placing no less than some guardrails on the method.
Excessive expectations are fueled by outcomes. The survey discovered that amongst knowledge groups utilizing GenAI, almost half (41 p.c) are seeing total knowledge supply productiveness development of 15-30 p.c, with 46 p.c reporting jumps of 31-50 p.c.
Given common GenAI productiveness good points of 25 p.c, based on a research by Goldman Sachs final yr, these outcomes recommend knowledge groups stand to realize no less than as a lot, or extra, from GenAI than different components of the enterprise.
Adoption is shifting quick. General, 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 “absolutely scaled.” The most typical use case is automated knowledge curation (58 p.c), with conversational analytics (51percent) and knowledge checks and high quality (51 p.c) working a detailed second and third.
Regardless of GenAI enthusiasm, knowledge executives see obstacles to adoption as nicely. The problem mostly cited (36 p.c) is the necessity for higher knowledge governance, whereas 24 p.c say quicker entry to knowledge is probably the most important hurdle. A considerable minority (36 p.c) say all GenAI initiatives require evaluation at a company-wide degree, probably bottlenecking innovation and improvement 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 workers 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 workforce capabilities to satisfy rising knowledge calls for.
“GenAI has clearly landed in knowledge groups and organizations are already getting worth. Over the following few years, GenAI will rework knowledge operations high to backside — from knowledge administration to knowledge transformation to knowledge integration, and all the things 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. Quite than attempt to construct all the things from scratch, probably the most profitable organizations will speed up their deployments by making good use of business knowledge options powered by GenAI and confirmed to work in Fortune 500-class environments.”
The survey was performed by Wakefield Analysis amongst 500 US knowledge and knowledge analytics executives with a minimal seniority of Director, at firms with a minimal annual income of $1B USD, between November twenty second and December third, 2024, utilizing an electronic mail invitation and a web-based survey.
For a deep dive into the findings, be part of Prophecy’s session The Affect of GenAI on Information Groups at Gartner Information & Analytics Summit 2025 in Orlando, March 5, 2025. To obtain the complete report, go to the Prophecy web site right here.
