Exasol Finds AI Underinvestment Leads to Business Failure, But Data Challenges Stall Rapid Adoption

Senior decision-makers know that AI is critical for their business’ viability, yet despite growing stakeholder pressure to implement the technology quickly, regulatory and technological challenges are slowing the process, according to a new report from Exasol, the high-performance analytics database provider. Released today, Exasol’s 2024 AI and Analytics Report investigates the current state of AI implementation, top data analytics challenges, and the future of the C-suite given the explosive growth of data and adoption of emerging technologies.

In partnership with Vanson Bourne, an independent research firm, Exasol surveyed 800 senior decision-makers as well as data scientists and analysts across the U.S., U.K., and Germany to assess enterprises’ data and analytics initiatives, including their top challenges and how they are planning to address those challenges in the short-term (within two years).

Key findings include:

Decision-makers and technical analysts believe that not investing in AI today will lead to business failure, but there are still significant barriers to broader implementation

Nearly all (91%) respondents agree that AI is one of the most important topics for organizations in the next two years, with a whopping 72% admitting that not investing in AI today will put future business viability at risk. Stakeholder pressure is also a factor in greater AI adoption, with 45% claiming they are experiencing increased pressure from stakeholders to embrace the technology. Top cited reasons for the belief in the importance of AI include creating new businesses or sources of revenue (50%); changing workforce roles and responsibilities (47%); accelerating competitiveness in the market (46%); and automating processes (43%).

However, despite understanding how critical the technology is for future success, there are barriers to its seamless implementation, with almost 9 in 10 (88%) stating evolving bureaucratic requirements and regulations for AI require more clarity. Additionally, lack of implementation strategy (44%); poor data quality and insufficient data volume (43%); and integration with existing systems (38%) are hindering widespread AI adoption. Organizations must find ways to overcome these obstacles, as more than a third (38%) of businesses plan to increase AI infrastructure in the next few years.

Latency continues to hamper organizations’ data analytics and AI initiatives

Organizations are struggling to progress their data analytics and AI projects, with a staggering 78% of decision-makers reporting gaps in at least one area of their data science and machine learning (ML) models. Nearly half (47%) cite speed to implement new data requirements as a challenge.

Despite most (96%) using BI acceleration engines to accelerate queries directly in their tools, an astounding 69% of BI users admit they continue to struggle with slow reporting performance. An additional 79% claim new business analysis requirements take too long to be implemented by their data teams, meaning latency continues to hamper organizations’ innovation capabilities, data analytics projects and AI potential.

Given increased data volumes and AI acceleration, the role of Chief Data Officer will evolve to become more integrated, impactful, and challenging

The role of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) will evolve in response to the integration of AI, including infrastructure development, AI-driven automation and AI-driven insights. In fact, more than half (52%) of respondents believe the CDO role will need to work more closely with other C-suite members, and 44% believe it will merge with the Chief AI Officer while ethical and compliance issues continue to be a focus.

In terms of business operations forecasting, 90% of enterprises believe they will increase their investment in headcount and/or budget over the next two years to support expected data growth. The roles anticipated to increase most over this time period include BI/analytics developers and engineers (both 48%); data analysts (46%); and data architects/modelers (45%). Despite the anticipated increased headcount, 47% of survey respondents report concerns that generative AI will threaten their role.

“AI has become critical to business success, but it’s only as effective as the tools, technology and people powering it on the backend. Our study further proves there is a significant gap between current BI tools and their output – more tools does not necessarily mean faster performance or better insights,” said Joerg Tewes, CEO of Exasol. “As CDOs prepare for more complexity and are tasked to do more with less, they must evaluate their data analytics stack to ensure productivity, speed, and flexibility – all at a reasonable cost.”

To help close this gap for the enterprise, Exasol has enhanced its versatile query engine, Exasol Espresso, with the launch of Espresso AI, a new suite of integrated AI features and ML tools designed to help customers approach data analytics in a faster, more cost-efficient, and flexible manner. To learn more about Espresso AI, visit: www.exasol.com/espresso.

“The results clearly show that latency is an obstacle to innovation. Before expanding our license model and implementing a full in-memory solution, our data analytics team struggled with persistent latency problems," says Stephan Lehmann, Head of Data Warehouse Development at MEDION. "By utilizing the Exasol Data Warehouse with in-memory technology, we were able to increase query performance by an impressive 70% and save several hours of data processing overnight. As we prepare for the future of AI and its growing importance to business success, we are convinced that Exasol's powerful data analytics foundation will be critical to increasing our speed of innovation and securing our competitive advantage in this AI-driven landscape."

For more information, please download the full 2024 AI and Analytics Report here.

Methodology

Exasol commissioned independent market research agency Vanson Bourne to conduct research into data, analytics, and AI. The study surveyed 800 senior decision-makers in IT and non-IT roles, as well as data scientists/analysts, in November 2023. Respondents were from the U.S., U.K. and Germany, and all had some responsibility or knowledge of their organizations’ data science and analytics strategy or program.

Respondents were from organizations with 1,000 or more employees, across the following sectors: financial services, healthcare (public and private), retail and telecommunications. All interviews were conducted using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate.

About Exasol

Exasol is the high-performance analytics database provider bringing increased productivity, cost-savings and flexibility to redefine how businesses use data – on their own terms, without having to compromise.

Exasol helps companies transform business intelligence (BI) into better insights with Exasol Espresso, the world’s fastest, most versatile query engine that plugs into existing data stacks. With its purposely-built columnar database, Massively Parallel Processing architecture and auto-tuning capabilities, Espresso serves as an easy-to-deploy BI accelerator, working with any data tool to turbocharge complex queries and deliver insights at blazing speeds. With Exasol Espresso, organizations can turn higher volumes of data into faster, deeper and cheaper insights.

Exasol also provides an unmatched price-performance ratio, with over 300% ROI through reduced licensing, implementation, maintenance and training costs. With Exasol, businesses have the flexibility to manage data in the cloud, SaaS, on-premises, or hybrid, without rip-and-replace disruption.

Join the world’s biggest brands – like T-Mobile, Piedmont Healthcare, and Allianz – and leave the competition behind with Exasol. Start accelerating your insights to the speed of now, without compromising.

Learn more at: www.exasol.com and follow us on social media: LinkedIn.

About Vanson Bourne

Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and their ability to seek the opinions of senior decision-makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.

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