Further’s State of Enterprise AI Maturity Report Reveals Only Five Percent of Organizations Believe Their Data is AI-Ready

New AI Maturity report examines the gaps between AI adoption, implementation, and scale

Cleveland, Oct. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Further (further.ai), a leading provider of enterprise data and AI solutions, today announced the findings of its “State of Enterprise AI Maturity” report. As organizations rush to deploy AI, most are discovering that models are only as good as the data fueling them – yet few have a clear roadmap to AI maturity and creating measurable business value. To uncover the real-world friction, strategies, and ROI metrics behind enterprise AI adoption, Further surveyed 515 U.S.-based AI decision-makers to gather insight into how companies are actively preparing data for AI, building organizational trust, establishing governance frameworks, and tracking ROI.

The new report reveals that across industries, AI adoption is being mistaken for AI maturity. With AI investment forecasted to exceed $1 trillion in the U.S. this year, the survey found that a majority (69%) of organizations investing in AI remain in the exploring, experimenting, or implementing stages, concentrated on the lower and middle rungs of the maturity ladder. The survey, which polled participants in AI decision-making roles, exposes a disconnect between early AI returns and long-term strategic transformation. 

“Nobody is slowing down on AI spending, but a lot of money is being spent out of fear of falling behind, without a roadmap for deriving long-term value,” said Jason Tabeling, Head of Solutions at Further. “Right now, 83% of leaders see AI readiness as a competitive advantage, but only 3% have a documented process to audit it. That gap is where new AI advantages will be decided, and outcomes will move beyond cost savings."

Findings from the report show that while 29% of organizations have completed a formal data audit and remediation plan, a mere 5% believe their data is largely AI-ready. Additional takeaways include:

• AI’s short-term value is being mistaken for long-term advantage.
  • Early AI returns are real but predominantly operational – 36% of respondents point to cost savings and 25% to routine process improvement.
• Organizations are building on data that’s analytics-ready, not AI-ready.
  • 37% of organizations have paused, scaled back or abandoned an underperforming AI initiative in the past 12 months. Among that group, the top-cited reason is data quality or availability issues (24%).
  • Furthermore, 18% cited a lack of governance as being a core issue with their data. 
• Confidence in AI outpaces operational reality.
  • 79% call their organization aligned, and 82% feel confident explaining AI outputs, but 25% also say they struggle to explain or trust AI outputs, while 36% cite a lack of internal expertise as their biggest implementation and operational challenge.
  • While 83% see AI readiness as at least a partial competitive advantage, just 3% have a documented process for auditing AI.
• Ownership isn’t the same as accountability.
  • AI decision-making is almost evenly split between IT and data teams (40%) and executive leadership (38%). However, only 7% convene leadership and technical teams in a cross-functional Center of Excellence.

“AI exposes every shortcut you've ever taken with your data. More than a third of organizations have pulled back on an AI initiative in the past year, and data quality is the reason they cite most,” said Price Glomski, SVP of GTM at Further. “Investment in AI alone won't fix that. Building the governance and data infrastructure that AI depends on will.”

While AI has moved past initial experimentation, most organizations are still working through the harder shift from adoption to maturity. The organizations in this report have the budgets and the momentum, but what many still lack is a way to turn short-term savings into lasting business value. According to the report, the organizations that pull ahead will be the ones that tie AI to measurable business outcomes, back their confidence with documented processes, and pair ownership with clear accountability.

The full report can be found here. Contact us to take the Further AI maturity assessment, benchmarking your organization against those in the report.

About Further
Further is a data, cloud, and AI company that partners with the world’s leading organizations to turn data into confident decisions that drive better business outcomes. Certified across multiple technology and cloud partners, including Google and Adobe, we have developed a range of strategies, solutions, and managed services to help accelerate AI maturity and maximize business performance. To find out more, visit further.ai.

Kendall Kosek
Alloy, on behalf of Further
further@alloycrew.com