Gartner Survey Finds One-Third of CDAOs Cite Measuring Data, Analytics and AI Impact as Top Challenge

Thirty percent of chief data and analytics officers (CDAOs) said their top challenge is the inability to measure data, analytics and AI impact on business outcomes, according to a new Gartner, Inc. survey.

The annual Gartner Chief Data & Analytics Officer Agenda Survey was conducted from September through November 2024 among 504 data and analytics executive leaders across the world.

“There is a massive value vibe around data, where many organisations talk about the value of data, desire to be data-driven, etc., but there are few who can substantiate it,” said Michael Gabbard, Sr. Director Analyst at Gartner. “Often, organisations that regularly align to data themes outperform their peers.”

For the overwhelming majority (more than 90%), value- and outcome-focused areas of the data and analytics (D&A) leader’s role have become their main remit over the past 12 to 18 months and will continue to be a concern going forward. However, only 22% of the surveyed organisations have defined, tracked and communicated business impact metrics for the bulk of their D&A use cases.

“Organisations are increasingly prioritising the development of a robust D&As strategy to enhance decision making and operational efficiency and this falls to D&A leaders,” said Gabbard. “CDAOs must accelerate data-driven and decision-centric vision by spotting important trends early to make proactive, informed choices about D&A strategy and building operational context around these drivers.”

According to the Gartner survey, 91% of CDAOs said that creating an actionable D&A strategy is a primary responsibility for them.

“We found that while creating an actionable D&A strategy is a primary responsibility for these CDAOs, more than one-third of them do not identify establishing and evolving the operating model as a primary responsibility,” concluded Gabbard. “There is a perennial gap between planning and execution for D&A leaders.”