Businesses continue to increase their investment in Artificial Intelligence, but many are still struggling to establish the data foundations needed to generate meaningful returns.
According to Dun & Bradstreet’s Q4 2026 AI Momentum Survey, which covered 10,000 businesses across 32 countries, 65% of respondents plan to increase AI spending over the next 12 months. However, only 8% consider their enterprise data fully ready to support AI at scale.
- 65% of businesses plan to increase their AI spending over the next 12 months.
- Only 8% report that their data is fully ready to support AI at scale, while 44% describe their data as only partially ready.
- Just 28% report broad or strong returns from their AI initiatives.
- Among businesses with fully AI-ready data, 81% report broad or strong AI returns, compared with only 12% among those with partially ready data.
The findings highlight an important consideration for organizations investing in AI: technology adoption alone does not guarantee business value. Data quality, consistency, accessibility, and readiness remain essential foundations for successful AI implementation.
The survey also points to a substantial difference in reported AI returns between organizations with mature data foundations and those still working to establish them.
Read the original report:
Dun & Bradstreet – Q4 2026 AI Momentum Survey