To Get Full AI Payoff, Invest First in Data Management

Garbage in, garbage out. That’s long been the issue for successful data analytics, and it’s an even bigger issue today, given the rapid pace of investment in artificial intelligence (AI). About 80 percent of enterprises report they are investing in related AI technologies in some capacity and 30 percent plan on expanding their investments, research shows. Businesses expect AI to help keep them ahead of the competition. But risk abounds. How can companies break the cycle of garbage in, garbage out and assure that insights derived from AI are sound? After all, any information system—AI or other—is only as good as the quality of its data. Information systems are largely reliant on user input and entries need to be correct and credible. AI uses computer algorithms to replicate the human ability to learn and make predictions, and AI software finds patterns and make inferences from large quantities of data.