Data, Analytics, & AI: While the analysis of data plays a key role in the business decision-making process, less than half of senior executives are confident they have the right data to make important decisions, according to research conducted by MIT SMR Connections with the support of SAS.
The research entitled “Data, Analytics, & AI: How to trust delivers valueFocuses on the degree to which companies have confidence in the data they collect and analyze.
The added value from analytics and new technologies, like artificial intelligence, starts from trusting them. Companies interested in creating a data-driven culture, where people understand data and leverage advanced analytics to make better decisions, prioritize building trust around the data they collect and store, and the insights they provide. This very trust reinforces the culture they pursue.
However, research shows that only 15% of respondents use advanced analytics to make business decisions. Less than one in ten uses automated analytics and only 7% applies artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to decision making.
The "Utility Gap"
Although 76% of respondents said they have increased access to data they find useful - which is not surprising as data volumes are steadily increasing in the context of business digitization - only 43% believe they often have the right data for making appropriate decisions. This "utility gap", as characterized by MIT SMR Connections, reveals a recurrence of the phenomenon, since similar responses had emerged in a similar survey conducted in 2017.
This shows a confidence gap, which is also reflected in the next question. Only 10% of respondents said that they always trusted the data, while 40% (on average) sometimes trusted the data.
Three key conclusions
One of the most important findings of the research is that there is a need for greater commitment and investment towards managing and securing data, which is also the cornerstone for building trust. Particularly important are the companies that deal with the better safety and data protection, elements critical to maintaining customer confidence in companies' use of their personal data.
Data security is at the heart of the survey responses and has the potential to be further developed with the application of analytics and artificial intelligence. It also presents an opportunity to capitalize on its conservation initiatives privacyand GDPR to build trust, rather than just acting as part of compliance processes.
Finally, although adopting an analytics-based culture improves innovation, only a small percentage of respondents are involved in activities that develop employees' knowledge of data analysis.
Finding staff with the right skills is one of the major challenges, so there is still much room for improvement and much effort needs to be made to bridge this ever-widening gap.
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