How AI can empower businesses to make more effective use of their data
Over the last year, many businesses have faced significant changes and upheaval, but some have been able to pivot and adapt more easily than others. Much of this agility has been down to the use of real-time data and insights to drive decision-making, with chief data officers (CDOs) playing a key role in helping their organisations adapt to changing circumstances.
Yet while data can be extremely valuable and useful in a wide variety of contexts, research from InterSystems has found that more than half of senior decision-makers in UK and Ireland businesses feel overwhelmed by the data generated within their organisation and lack this level of real-time access to data that others have been able to harness. In fact, many businesses experience significant delays when analysing their data, with 41% of businesses surveyed stating that this process takes a week or two, while it takes 16% of businesses a month.
Coupled with the sheer volume of data they are dealing with, this means an organisations’ ability to make the informed, real-time decisions vital to respond to rapidly changing landscapes is being severely impeded. And, with such substantial delays, many decisions are, in fact, being based on what is essentially outdated information. Consequently, eliminating lengthy processes upfront is critical to allow enterprises to get to data sources faster and make decisions based on this data much quicker.
Getting to the data faster
This is where data fabrics, a new architectural approach that speeds and simplifies access to data assets across the entire business, will prove beneficial. By implementing a data fabric, which accesses, transforms, and harmonizes data from multiple sources, on demand, organisations will be able to gain accurate visibility across the entire enterprise and leverage their data more fully.
With data fabrics enabling businesses to gain a single real-time view of accurate, consistent, and trusted data, they will be well-positioned to adopt data platforms and solutions that make use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This use of technology will help to overcome many of the data challenges organisations are currently experiencing, drastically speeding up processes by enabling them to analyse and gain insight from their data in near to real-time.
Currently, almost three-quarters of senior decision-makers are already comfortable with the use of AI in their business and 64% see AI as having a positive impact on their job in the future. Extending its use within their organisation would offer significant benefits, including helping to improve processes, extract insights faster, and deliver real-time outcomes at scale.
Using data to its full potential
As data continues to grow exponentially, the challenges organisations are experiencing in accessing and using their data to the greatest effect are only going to worsen. Taking action now to implement the right solutions and operationalise predictive technologies will ultimately help to reduce instances of senior decision-makers feeling overwhelmed by data and enable them to use it to its fullest potential. In the current landscape, this will enable agility to respond to continued and unexpected volatility, as well as empowering the creation of new revenue streams and streamlined business processes to improve customer experiences and gain competitive advantages.
Author:
Saurav Gupta, Sales Engineer, InterSystems
You can read all insights from techUK's AI Week here
Katherine Holden
Katherine joined techUK in May 2018 and currently leads the Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID programme.