The Data Quality Crisis Killing 85% of AI Projects (And How to Fix It)

85% of AI leaders cite data quality as their biggest challenge, yet most initiatives launch without addressing foundational data problems. Tom Barber reveals the uncomfortable conversation your AI team is avoiding.

The Data Quality Crisis Killing 85% of AI Projects

Key Statistics

• 85% of AI leaders cite data quality as their most significant challenge (KPMG 2025 AI Quarterly Poll)
• 77% of organizations lack essential data and AI security practices (Accenture State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025)
• 72% of CEOs view proprietary data as key to Gen AI value (IBM 2025 CEO Study)
• 50% of CEOs acknowledge significant data challenges from rushed investments
• 30% of Gen AI projects predicted to be abandoned after proof of concept (Gartner)

Three Critical Questions for Your AI Initiative

1. Single Source of Truth

• Do we have unified data for AI models to consume?
• Are AI initiatives using centralized data warehouses or convenient silos?
• How do conflicting data versions affect AI outputs?

2. Data Quality Ownership

• Who owns data quality in our organization?
• Do they have authority to block deployments?
• Was data quality specifically signed off on your last AI launch?

3. Data Lineage and Traceability

• Can we trace AI decisions back to source data?
• How do we debug AI failures without lineage?
• Are we prepared for EU AI Act requirements (phased in February 2025)?

The Real Cost of Poor Data Governance

• Organizations skip governance → hit problems at scale → abandon initiatives → repeat cycle
• Tech debt compounds from rushed implementations
• Strong data foundations enable faster AI scaling

Action Items for This Week

1. Ask for data quality scores on your highest priority AI initiative
2. Identify who owns data quality decisions and their authority level
3. Test traceability: can you track wrong outputs to source data?
4. Ensure data governance is a budget line item, not buried assumption

Key Frameworks Mentioned

• Accenture: Data security, lineage, quality, and compliance
• PwC: Board-level data governance priority
• KPMG: Integrated AI and data governance under single umbrella

Research Sources

• KPMG 2025 AI Quarterly Poll Survey
• Accenture State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025
• IBM 2025 CEO Study
• Drexel University and Precisely Study
• PwC Research on AI Data Governance
• Gartner AI Project Predictions
• Forrester IT Landscape Analysis
• EU AI Act Requirements

Chapters

• 0:00 - Introduction: The Data Quality Crisis
• 0:29 - Why 85% of AI Leaders Struggle with Data Quality
• 2:12 - How AI Makes Data Problems Worse
• 2:56 - Three Critical Questions Every Organization Must Ask
• 4:45 - The Real Cost of Skipping Data Governance
• 5:34 - Reframing Data Governance as an Accelerant
• 6:16 - What Good Data Governance Looks Like
• 7:33 - Action Steps You Can Take This Week