C-suite insights advance Teradata’s position in trusted AI

70% of C-suite execs reveal their AI strategy is not fully aligned with their business strategy. Teradata and NewtonX research identifies AI trust barriers and offers strategic direction for AI initiatives.

Business leaders believe AI is the future, but the path towards trusted AI is not so straightforward

AI holds immense potential, but it has trust issues – in its reliability, handling of data, and confidence in organizational strategy and execution. In fact, four in 10 executives don’t trust their own data to generate accurate AI outputs according to a global executive survey by Teradata & NewtonX, ‘Trusted AI in the C-Suite.’

Teradata helps companies build a foundation of trusted data for mission-critical workloads, including AI initiatives. Now, as AI becomes a business imperative fraught with risks, Teradata is guiding companies towards adopting trusted AI strategies. Teaming up with NewtonX, Teradata aimed to educate C-level leaders on the business value of trusted AI and demonstrate its leadership in the industry.

Survey of 294 C-level execs and 26 expert interviews uncover factors in AI strategies, successes, failures, and pathways to trusted AI

NewtonX conducted 26 expert interviews with C-suite executives and AI leaders across industries, identifying key factors influencing trust in AI systems, such as metrics for accuracy and transparency, and highlighted how trust impacts AI initiatives. 

This provided direction for the next phase in the research: surveying 294 executives worldwide, from companies with at least 1,000 employees and $750 million+ in annual revenues – including Nike, P&G, Hermes Paris, Allianz Partners, Prudential Financial, Honeywell, and Novartis.

Key findings:

AI is mostly deployed at the department — not organization — level. 39% utilize AI in select departments but only 12% have implemented AI solutions company-wide.

There’s a misalignment between AI and business strategy. While 89% of executives believe AI is critical for competitiveness, only 56% report having a clear AI strategy.

CEOs expect immediate AI impact. Executives expect rapid returns from AI investments, with 58% expecting ROI within six months and 84% within a year.

Proven success and use cases are crucial to building trust in AI. Demonstrated efficiencies in operations (74%), successful use cases (74%), and improved decision-making processes (57%) are key in building confidence around AI. Additionally, prioritizing vendors that ensure seamless AI integration is critical for trust (67%).

Collaborating with NewtonX helped us accelerate our position in trusted AI, leveraging credible insights from C-level execs and AI leaders deeply connected to their organizations’ strategy and long-term vision.

Jacqueline Woods

CMO, Teradata

Teradata advances its trusted AI leadership through C-suite insights and media coverage

In May, Teradata launched the Trusted AI in the C-Suite report that highlighted the impact of data on trust in AI, revealing that only 40% of enterprises believe their data is ready to achieve accurate outcomes. As the report states, “That’s not much better than a coin-flip difference between trusting AI outputs and not.”

The findings provided an evidence-based foundation for Teradata’s three principles of trusted AI — focusing on people, transparency, and value creation — and Teradata’s Trusted AI Index, a free diagnostic questionnaire that anyone can use to assess their organization’s AI trust levels.

The data resonated across industries and in C-suites and garnered significant media attention, appearing in the Financial Times, Forbes, CFO.com, and more. Fortune featured the report in its CFO Daily newsletter, labeling it a “Big Deal” and emphasizing its profound financial implications. Forbes delved deeper into the findings, noting, “The motto for business leaders is trust, but verify.”

“The research from NewtonX was right on target for what I would expect as an AI practitioner,” remarked Vedat Akgun, VP of Data Science & AI at Teradata. “It’s grounded, devoid of hype, highly realistic, and directly aligns with the key opportunities and challenges business and AI leaders face.”

“Collaborating with NewtonX helped us accelerate our position in trusted AI, leveraging credible insights from C-level execs and AI leaders deeply connected to their organizations’ strategy and long-term vision,” noted Jacqueline Woods, Chief Marketing Officer at Teradata. “The foundation of AI is clean, reliable, trustworthy data because it is the backbone of AI outputs. While achieving complete trust remains elusive for many executives, our survey shows a deepening understanding of how to reach trusted AI at enterprise-scale and confirms that Teradata is well-positioned to help its customers with these business objectives.”