Nearly all (96%) of IT leaders say AI is at least somewhat integrated into their core business processes, up from 88% in 2024 when leaders said they were currently using AI within their companies.
This is according to a report from Cloudera, which is based on a poll of 1,574 IT leaders from companies with more than 1,000 employees. Respondents were based in the United States; Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia-Pacific region. The survey was conducted in July 2025.
Results indicate that AI has gone from experimentation to full integration in core processes and workflows. And it’s paying off: 70% of respondents said they have achieved at least significant success with AI initiatives, with only 1% having yet to see results.
Enterprises are tapping into a variety of AI forms to achieve these results, including generative (60%), deep learning (53%), and predictive (50%). The confidence to diversify AI portfolios is also up, with 67% of IT leaders feeling more prepared to manage new forms of AI, particularly AI agents, than a year ago.
Behind this success is a growing shift in how enterprises approach data. A hybrid approach to data architecture has become the norm, offering organizations the flexibility to manage AI across cloud and on-prem environments.
When asked about the biggest advantages of a hybrid approach, respondents cited security (62%), improved data management (55%), and improved data analytics (54%).
Despite progress, enterprises acknowledge they are still on the journey toward maximizing AI’s potential and ROI. While 24% said their culture is now extremely data-driven, up from 17% last year, most recognize more work is needed to embed data-first thinking into business practices.
The biggest technical limitations identified in current data architectures when supporting AI workloads include data integration (37%), storage performance (17%), and compute power (17%).
Data accessibility is another hurdle: only 9% of organizations said all of their data is available and usable for AI initiatives, while 38% reported that most of their data is accessible.
“In just a year, AI has shifted from a strategic priority to an urgent mandate, actively reshaping operations and redefining the rules of competition,” said Sergio Gago, CTO at Cloudera.
“But our survey shows that enterprises still face deep challenges around security, compliance, and data utilization, with many getting stuck at the proof-of-concept stage,” said Gago.
In Singapore, 12% of IT leaders reported their AI initiatives were transformationally successful, with an additional 39% reporting significant success.
At the same time, barriers to scaling remain. Rising costs and mounting security and compliance risks are top concerns, with IT leaders pointing to data storage costs (56%), data breaches or leakages (52%), and integration costs (52%).
Relating to AI security, the top concerns cited were model manipulation or poisoning (41%), unauthorized data access (41%), and data leakage during model training (38%).
“Enterprises in Singapore are moving past experimentation and into a new phase of maturity with AI, with 88% of respondents indicating that AI is at least somewhat integrated into core business processes,” said Remus Lim, SVP of Cloudera Asia-Pacific and Japan.
“However, only 2% of Singapore enterprises are able to access all of their data for AI initiatives,” said Lim. “The challenge now lies in unlocking data at scale while addressing persistent security and compliance risks.”
