Cloudera, the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, today released findings from its latest global report, The Evolution of AI: The State of Enterprise AI and Data Architecture. According to the survey of more than 1,500 IT leaders, only 9% of organisations say all their data is available and usable for AI, while 38% reported that most of their data is accessible.
While the majority (86%) of organisations say they are data driven, many still face technical limitations with the data architecture when it comes to supporting AI workloads. The biggest challenges cited were data integration (37%), storage performance (17%) and computer power (17%), lack of automation (17%) and latency (12%). Separately, 61% of respondents said siloed data had at least sometimes negatively impacted their ability to scale AI initiatives.
While more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents were confident in their organisation’s ability to secure data used in AI systems, there are still lingering concerns.
The top concerns for AI security were:
- Data leakage during model training – 50%
- Unauthorised data access – 48%
- Unsecure third-party AI tools – 43%
- Lack of visibility or explainability in model outputs – 39%
- Model manipulation or poisoning – 35%
Despite these challenges the speed of AI adoption shows no sign of slowing down with 21% saying that AI is already fully integrated into their business processes. A further 54% said AI was significantly integrated and 21% said it was somewhat integrated. Overall, 70% of respondents said they have already achieved significant success with AI initiatives.
“In the last 12 months, AI has shifted from a strategic priority to an urgent mandate, actively reshaping operations and redefining the rules of competition,” said Sergio Gago, Chief Technology Officer at Cloudera. “But our survey shows that challenges around security, compliance, and data utilisation still remain. Organisations need access to all of their data, wherever it resides and in any form, to govern it securely and unlock real-time and predictive insights. As a result, hybrid data architectures are becoming essential, giving organisations the flexibility to manage AI seamlessly across both cloud and on-premises environments.”
Some of the findings from the report were highlighted at EVOLVE25 London, Cloudera’s flagship event series showcasing innovations at the intersection of AI and data.
Methodology
The survey, commissioned by Cloudera and fielded by Researchscape, examines the views of 1,574 IT leaders based across the U.S., EMEA, and APAC regions who work at companies with more than 1,000 employees. The survey was fielded in July 2025. The results of this survey have been weighted to be representative of the overall GDP of surveyed countries.
To learn more, visit Cloudera.com.
