Responsibly Sourced Data: AI’s Crucial Ingredient

Whitepaper

AI winners are focusing on data integrity

3 April 202512 mins
Iron Mountain and FT Longitude research on AI data integrity and information management in large enterprises

Well-managed data gives organisations a strong competitive advantage. Organisations that have superior data collection, storage and analytics capabilities are benefiting from increased revenues and profitability, with use cases ranging from enhanced productivity to new forms of customer experiences and business value propositions.

Now, there is even more potential to get ahead by using artificial intelligence (AI) to drive smarter, faster decision-making. But to avoid problems such as hallucinations, bias and ethical missteps, AI solutions need to be fed with data that is of high quality and responsibly sourced. With the rise of open-source and specialised AI models, data integrity and transparency are more critical than ever.

New research from Iron Mountain, in partnership with FT Longitude, uncovers the extent to which organisations have developed information management systems and datasets that are fit for the AI age. Based on a survey of senior leaders at 500 large organisations worldwide (those with more than 1,000 employees), it identifies the performance gaps in organisations’ data ecosystems and practices. And it identifies a group of leaders that are providing a blueprint for building AI-ready information management capabilities.

Defining the leaders

There are 47 organisations in the research – just under 10% of the total respondent base – that demonstrate consistently high performance in converting information management into a competitive advantage.

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Key findings

  • AI readiness is now seen as critical to organisational ambitions. Respondents in our leader group say that building datasets to power AI is the information management goal that will have the biggest impact on whether they achieve their strategic objectives over the next 12 months
  • Large companies have secured a “good data dividend” that is equivalent to average revenue growth of $1.9bn over the past 12 months
  • Most organisations have gaps in their AI readiness. They have managed to achieve occasional benefits from their strategies, but they lack consistency
  • The average large organisation has lost almost $390,000 over the past 12 months because of data integrity flaws

How big is the “good data dividend”?

Nine out of 10 organisations in our research have seen both revenue and profitability grow over the past 12 months as a direct result of their information management systems and strategies. Many also report gains in areas including employee productivity, cost management and new business generation.

The average organisation in our research has secured a “good data dividend” – the increase in revenue due to investment in information management systems and strategies – worth $1.9bn. This equates to an estimated total global revenue gain of $72tn.

$72 tn

Large organisations’ estimated total global revenue gain from investment in information management systems and strategies
Information management is influencing performance growth