Unlocking unstructured data for AI readiness
Blogs and Articles
AI is no longer a future goal for organisations. Instead, it’s a driving force behind how organisations manage, govern, and extract value from their data. Turning that potential into performance requires rethinking the foundations of information management strategy.
Swami Jayaraman, Iron Mountain’s Enterprise Chief Technology Officer, recently joined AIIM On Air to share practical, future-focused insights to help organisations navigate the complexity of AI adoption in information-rich environments.
From overcoming data fragmentation to building trust in AI outcomes, Swami offers a clear perspective on what it takes to prepare your information infrastructure for what’s next.
Why AI struggles in the enterprise
According to AIIM, 77% of enterprises have at least experimented with AI. However, many of these organisations face significant challenges and barriers to adoption. This AI implementation maturity gap suggests that the issue lies not in adoption, but in data readiness and a clear strategy.
While organisational inertia plays a big role in stalled AI progress, many enterprises find the real barrier to be disparate data systems. With unstructured data scattered across upstream and downstream systems, many organisations lack the unified platform strategy needed for AI to make a real difference. While helpful, even technologies such as data lakes and data warehouses are typically designed only for structured data. Without a clear plan to integrate and access both types of data, AI struggles to deliver meaningful insights.
This fragmentation also raises the stakes for security and compliance. When AI is applied across silos and interacts with sensitive information, information governance becomes even more critical—especially in regulated industries.
Still, the payoff for overcoming these barriers is significant. Organisations that overcome these hurdles are already seeing AI deliver measurable results such as increased productivity, operational agility, and increasingly personalised customer experiences.
