Fewer than half of enterprise leaders say their information methods — how information is collected, managed, saved, and accessed — are utterly aligned with their enterprise priorities.
That's in line with a 2025 Salesforce survey of greater than 550 US senior enterprise leaders of firms with not less than 500 staff throughout a number of industries. The quantity is down 14% from 2023.
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The rising significance of data-driven decision-making is obvious however elusive. Nonetheless, the belief within the information underpinning these selections is falling. Enterprise leaders don’t really feel geared up to seek out, analyze, and interpret the information they want in an more and more aggressive enterprise atmosphere.
The added complexity is the convergence of macro and micro uncertainties — together with financial, political, monetary, technological, aggressive panorama, and expertise scarcity variables. All advised, these are putting huge strain on enterprise leaders to have fast entry to essentially the most related information wanted to make smarter, sooner, and extra impactful selections.
Listed here are key findings from the survey of enterprise leaders:
- Based on the analysis, 72% of enterprise leaders imagine their careers rely on how data-driven they’re; that’s, they depend on information, metrics, and analytics to information their methods. Nonetheless, some leaders (86%) go a step additional, noting that their careers are depending on how data-literate they’re.
- Regardless of this, greater than half (54%) of enterprise leaders aren’t assured of their means to seek out, analyze, and interpret information on their very own.
- This insecurity is especially prevalent amongst self-described "right-brained" enterprise leaders — those that gravitate towards creativity and relationship constructing. Proper-brained leaders symbolize almost half (47%) of respondents and are mostly in advertising (59%), human sources (58%), and gross sales (56%)
Enterprise leaders are pressured to show worth with information.
Enterprise leaders are dropping confidence of their information
Enterprise leaders are anticipated to have information supporting their selections and funding theses; in truth, 66% of enterprise leaders really feel extra strain to be data-driven, and almost 6 out of 10 enterprise leaders are competing with their colleagues utilizing information to help their applications.
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The enterprise want for higher adoption of AI capabilities, together with predictive, generative and agentic AI options, is rising the necessity for companies to believe and belief of their information. Survey outcomes present that increased adoption of AI would require stronger information literacy and entry to reliable information.
Despite the fact that the function of knowledge is extra essential than ever for enterprise leaders, confidence ranges have declined up to now two years — confidence in information's relevance to enterprise targets is down 18%, and confidence in its accuracy is down 27% in comparison with survey outcomes from 2023.
Enterprise leaders are dropping confidence of their information – Salesforce Analysis
Knowledge literacy is now desk stakes, and 'non-data folks' are in danger
The survey discovered that 72% of enterprise leaders really feel their profession trajectories rely on how data-driven they’re; that’s, their means to make use of information, metrics, and information to drive selections. Based on analysis by Deloitte Digital and MuleSoft, 93% of IT leaders will implement AI brokers within the subsequent two years.
And the most important impediment to the adoption of agentic AI? Knowledge is trapped throughout siloed enterprise apps. The typical variety of apps respondents use is 897, with 45% reporting utilizing 1,000 purposes or extra — additional hindering IT groups' means to construct a unified expertise. Solely 29% of enterprise apps are built-in and share info throughout the enterprise.
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This isn’t nearly trapped information, or trapped worth to clients. That is about trapped alternatives for profession progress. The survey discovered that 86% of leaders stated their careers are reliant on how data-literate they’re — their means to make use of strategies and instruments to extract insights from information. This drive for information literacy is very felt amongst these in gross sales (90%) and advertising (89%).
The alarming a part of the survey is that 54% of enterprise leaders aren’t assured of their means to seek out, analyze, and interpret information on their very own. And fewer than half of enterprise leaders are certain they’ll use information to drive motion and decision-making, generate and ship well timed insights, or successfully use information of their day-to-day work. Knowledge literacy and confidence within the information are two progress alternatives for enterprise leaders throughout all strains of enterprise. CIO analysis from MuleSoft explains the explanation why:
- Adoption of autonomous brokers is a key enterprise precedence: Introducing autonomous brokers throughout the subsequent two years is on the roadmap for 93% of IT leaders; almost half have already performed so.
- Productiveness positive factors drive agent adoption: The overwhelming majority (93%) really feel that AI will improve developer productiveness over the subsequent three years, which is up 7% since final yr's report.
- Extra AI fashions can be deployed to drive agent adoption: The typical variety of AI fashions estimated for use doubled from 2024 (9 to 18), and IT leaders predict an additional improve of 78% within the subsequent three years to a mean of 32 fashions.
- IT budgets are rising in 2025: As demand for AI grows, so does the finances: 85% of IT decision-makers count on a rise of their general finances in 2025, whereas 11% anticipate that their IT budgets will keep the identical.
- Investments in information infrastructure are 4 occasions AI investments: To organize for the expanded use of AI, enterprise CIOs are allocating 20% of their budgets to information infrastructure and administration (in comparison with 5% to AI).
Agentic AI and its means for companies to develop a hybrid workforce — human labor and digital labor — is the highest CEO precedence. Profitable implementation of AI options require companies to undertake a data-driven tradition, the place information literacy and confidence in stated information is championed, celebrated and repeatedly bettering over time.
Knowledge literacy is non-negotiable however there’s a confidence hole – Salesforce Analysis
Scaling data-driven selections utilizing AI agent workflows
Scaling data-driven decision-making requires one key functionality — information within the circulation of labor. The survey discovered that 90% of enterprise leaders say that direct entry to the information they want throughout the applications and apps they work in essentially the most would assist them carry out higher; 86% say they'd use information extra typically if this have been the case.
We are able to not permit for information silos to exist. We should be capable of sense, perceive, determine, and take motion within the circulation of labor, utilizing trusted information that’s accessible to us whereas we use our instruments. The person interfaces (UI) should even be extra conversational, permitting our crew members to have conversations with their information — 85% of enterprise leaders assume they'd be higher at their job if they may ask their information questions with pure language as they use with colleagues. One of many superpowers of multi-modal (textual content, voice, video, photographs) AI brokers is the power to cause and have conversations with customers through enter and output system prompts.
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The promise of AI and information is its means to scale optimistic enterprise outcomes. Enterprise leaders should put money into and develop integration methods, understanding that AI can’t operate at its greatest with out entry to essential and trusted enterprise information. Enterprise leaders should additionally put money into worker coaching, intentionally specializing in bettering information literacy for all stakeholders.
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