The latest edition of the annual State of Data Intelligence Report published by global software provider, Quest Software, has found artificial intelligence (AI) has risen up the ranks of data governance drivers, but is not yet counted in the top three.

According to the 2024 report, 34 per cent of organisations said ensuring data readiness and quality for AI was a key reason to implement data governance initiatives. It was the fourth-most cited reason, behind improving data quality (42 per cent), security (40 per cent) and analytics (40 per cent).

Approximately one-third of organisations (33 per cent) said developing data and governance to be ‘AI-ready’ was the joint-second-most troublesome hindrance for their data value chain, behind understanding the quality of source data (38 per cent) and tied with finding, identifying and harvesting data assets (33 per cent).

“As AI continues to be a force multiplier of the data-driven enterprise, ensuring that your organisation’s data and governance is AI-ready is now a top-level business need,” Bharath Vasudevan, VP of Product Management at Quest Software, said.

“With data intelligence emerging as a key enabler of AI data readiness and operational efficiency, businesses will now have the ability to effectively position and ensure their data as a strategic growth asset rather than an accelerator of business risk.”

The report also indicated that 36 per cent more organisations believe they have a “clearly articulated data intelligence strategy” in place, when compared with the data from last year’s report. The results showed the top three data intelligence strategy priorities were increasing the strategic use of high-value data (38 per cent), enriching data quality (38 per cent), and developing and strengthening data and governance practices for future AI use (34 per cent).

“Organisations are seeing the business returns of focusing time and investment in data intelligence programs when a clearly articulated data intelligence strategy is in place,” Stephen Catanzano, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said.

“The challenge for organisations today is to balance their attention between getting more business value from reliable data right now while at the same time laying the groundwork to reduce the risk from and accelerate value from future AI use.”

Data marketplace take-up had also increased by 71 per cent year-on-year, with 95 per cent of organisations now planning to implement a self-service data marketplace or already have one in place.

“The fundamentals of data intelligence such as strong metadata management, data modelling, data lineage, integrated data quality and business-supporting governance, visibility and accessibility to high-value, trusted data are non-negotiables today,” Vasudevan said.

“They are proving to be the difference makers in succeeding in this era of greater business self-service and ensuring your data will be an asset.”