Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, has released its State of Data and Analytics report with key trends from over 10,000 analytics, IT, and business leaders across 18 countries, including the UAE. 
The report highlights trends impacting data leaders including strategies used to navigate rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), challenges organizations face in realizing the full potential of their data, and tactics analytics and IT leaders employ to manage increasingly extensive and complex data.
Key insights of this year’s State of Data and Analytics report include:
AI advancements intensify demand for trusted, secure data. Advances in AI are fast-moving, and companies are eager to profit from new iterations like generative AI. 87% of UAE business leaders are worried about missing out on its benefits. This puts pressure on data management teams to power algorithms with high-quality data. 94% of UAE analytics and IT leaders say advances in AI make data management a high priority.
Difficulty ensuring data accuracy and quality. The path to unlocking data’s potential is winding. Only 44% of UAE business leaders are completely confident in their data accuracy. The biggest hurdle for UAE business leaders is lack of data training, while analytics and IT leaders cite difficulty ensuring data accuracy and quality as their number one data challenge.
Leaders leverage data culture and data governance to reach goals. To maximize data value and trust, analytics and IT leaders lean on data governance. 87% of UAE analytics and IT leaders use data governance to ensure and certify baseline data quality. 81% of UAE analytics and IT leaders are investing more in data training in the next year to strengthen internal data culture.
Comments on the news:
“The AI revolution is actually a data revolution, and a company’s AI strategy is only as strong as its data strategy, with trust at its core,” said Salesforce’s Chief Data Officer Wendy Batchelder. “Managing data is the most important action a business can take to successfully implement generative AI. To effectively manage data, leaders must use data governance strategically and invest in a strong culture now more than ever.”
“Business leaders in the UAE are clearly keen to maximize the potential of AI to help accelerate their digital transformation, but they have legitimate concerns about their organizations’ ability to collect and use the right calibre of data,” said Thierry Nicault, Salesforce’s Area Vice President and General Manager, Middle East.
“The fact that business leaders have expressed concerns should be viewed in a positive light, as it shows that they are aware of the need to use quality data to power AI systems and recogSanize that there are areas for improvement. Salesforce looks forward to working with its customers to help them capture and utilize the right data from across their organization to ensure they can tap the full power of AI to operate smarter and more efficiently.”
Methodology
Data in this report are from two double-anonymous surveys conducted from June 16 through July 31, 2023. The first survey generated 5,540 responses from analytics and IT decision makers from 18 different countries across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
The second survey generated 5,540 responses from line-of-business leaders from the same countries. More details can be found in the report. Cultural bias impacts country-level survey results.
