Last Updated on October 25, 2024 Sarah Gayda
Information management will become even more critical in the age of AI, according to latest research
Is your organization ready to harness the power of AI without compromising data security? Is your business primed to take advantage of the benefits of strategic and coordinated AI use?
Likely the answer is no. And this is in line with recent research by Microsoft, LinkedIn and AIIM.
According to Microsoft’s 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report: AI at Work Is Here. Now Comes the Hard Part, employees want AI at work. However, “60% of leaders worry their organization’s leadership lacks a plan and vision to implement AI.”
This finding is consistent with AIIM’s recent findings published in its 2024 Industry Watch: State of the Intelligent Information Management Practice. Alarmingly, 82% of survey respondants reported their organization is either not very prepared or only somewhat prepared to take advantage of AI capabilities.
AIIM’s survey results mirror Colligo’s findings. During our webinar Is Your Data Ready for AI?, 67% of respondents claimed they are not ready to deploy an AI application like Microsoft Copilot.
3 reasons why a cautious approach to organizational AI use is wise
Your company is right to take a careful approach to data and artificial intelligence adoption. Here are three key issues when considering your data readiness for AI technologies:
- Poor data quality – 77% of AIIM survey respondents rated their organizational data as either average, poor, or very poor in terms of quality and readiness for AI. Poor data quality could be a result of siloed or fragmented data sources, ROT (redundant, outdated or trivial) data, or non-standardized or incomplete data.
Source: AIIM 2024 Industry Watch: State of the Intelligent Information Management Practice - Inadequate data security & permissions – Triple checking you have permissions set up correctly is critical for ensuring that employees don’t have access to information they shouldn’t see. For example, the salaries of senior-level compay excecutives. Notably, “What is the CEO’s salary?” is one of the top Microsoft Copilot queries. Further, you should also double check that you have applied the correct sensitivity labels to your SharePoint libraries and documents.
- Lack of integration between systems & data repositories – If your organization has siloed data systems, as is commonly the case, you will not be able to fully leverage the potential business value of your data. As a result, AI effectiveness will be limited.
Attendees at our recent webinar, Is Your Data Ready for AI?, echoed the above AI ready data concerns. 57% of respondants were worried about poor data quality or ROT, while 35% said they had issues with their data security and permissions.
Effective data management & governance is a “prerequisite” for AI
The resounding theme among AIIM’s recent research report makes one thing clear: you need to ready your data for AI. This means getting control of your unstructured data and implementing quality information management practices.
- “Harnessing unstructured data leads to better decision making, better customer experiences, and better business outcomes.”
- “The importance of information management or unstructured data management will continue to be incredibly important within organizations. Seventy-two percent (72%) of respondents agreed that information management will become more important over the next 12 months.”
- “As organizations navigate the AI era, data and information is a vital part of enterprise success. This year’s report shows the increasing prioritization of high quality and accessible data and information, which is only possible through the practice of information management.”
- “Harnessing unstructured data leads to better decision making, better customer experiences, and better business outcomes.”
4 tips for improving information governance at your organization
- Implement proper access controls.
- Utilize metadata and retention labels and policies.
- Implement records management policies that work for your organization.
- Use the right tools and software, including Colligo Email Manager. Email is still the number one way information enters your organization. Email Manager ensures your important business data is tagged and classified, according to policies, and saved in SharePoint Online where those with permissions can access it and future AI tools can leverage it.
Resources to learn more
We’ve focused on how you can get your company data ready for AI in a couple of recent, educational webinars. View the recorded versions for free:
Or, get in touch with us directly about your company’s AI readiness and data governance practices.
