CDOs increase data management spending to scale agentic AI

A survey of 600 chief data officers found AI adoption rising: 69% of companies with revenues of $500M+ now use generative AI, up from 48% in 2025, and 47% have adopted agentic AI with a further 31% planning to do so within a year. Data quality and access remain top barriers—half of agentic AI adopters point to quality and retrieval problems—and 76% of data leaders say governance has not kept pace with increased AI use.

At the same time, 65% of data leaders believe employees trust the data used for AI, and that confidence rises to 74% at companies using agentic AI. Data and AI literacy are seen as urgent gaps: 75% of CDOs say workforces need upskilling in data literacy and 74% in AI literacy.

Most data leaders plan to boost spending on data management—86% expect increased investment in 2026–2027—with priorities including improving data privacy and security (43%), strengthening data and AI governance (41%), and raising data and AI literacy (39%).

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