A new global report by Cloudera has exposed a widening gap between AI adoption and the data foundations required to make it work — a phenomenon the company describes as an “AI readiness illusion.”

The Data Readiness Index, based on a survey of nearly 1,300 IT leaders worldwide, found that while 96% of organisations have integrated AI into core business processes, nearly four in five (80%) say their AI initiatives remain constrained by limited data access across environments.

Confidence outpaces actual readiness

The report highlights a sharp disconnect between perceived and actual data maturity. While 84% of respondents expressed confidence in the accuracy and completeness of their organisation’s data, fewer than one in five (18%) said their data was fully governed across the organisation.

In the Asia Pacific region, the governance gap is more pronounced: just 10% of APAC respondents reported having all their data fully governed, despite 85% claiming to have complete visibility over where their data resides.

“Enterprises aren’t struggling to adopt AI, they’re struggling to operationalise it beyond experiments,” said Sergio Gago, Chief Technology Officer at Cloudera. “AI is only as effective as the data that fuels it.”

ROI remains elusive for most

When asked why AI initiatives fall short of expectations, respondents cited data quality (22%), cost overruns (16%), and poor integration into existing workflows (15%) as the primary culprits. In APAC specifically, data quality issues and weak workflow integration were each cited by 19% of respondents — suggesting that even markets making progress on AI deployment face the same foundational constraints.

Infrastructure limitations compound the challenge. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of global respondents reported that performance constraints have hindered operational AI initiatives.

Industry variation in data readiness

Data readiness varies significantly by sector. Telecommunications leads, with 54% of respondents saying they have full visibility into where their data resides. Financial services (30%) and the public sector (31%) lag considerably behind. However, even telcos are not immune — 60% reported that infrastructure performance consistently hinders operational initiatives, the highest of any industry surveyed.

“Asia Pacific organisations are not standing still on AI. Many already have clear strategies in place and are moving quickly to put them into action,” said Remus Lim, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Cloudera. “But in the next phase of AI, organisations need to connect, govern, and operationalise their data across environments.”

The survey was fielded by Researchscape across AMER, EMEA, and APAC between January and March 2026, covering organisations with more than 1,000 employees.