NEW YORK, January 7, 2025 – Hakkoda, a modern data consultancy, today announced the release of its State of Data 2025 report. The findings offer a snapshot of the current data space in which the push to migrate to data cloud platforms has entered its final phase and the novelty of early AI experiments have given way to more defined, efficient, and outcome-oriented AI implementations. With these changes, the modern data stack, powered by automation and built to facilitate monetization, is transforming data teams from cost centers to centers for profit, though only innovative organizations are poised to take full advantage of this shift.
The State of Data 2025 report surveyed 500 data leaders from large organizations across major industries. Respondents hold director-level or higher positions in IT and analytics roles at US companies with 1,000 or more employees in the following sectors: Distribution/Supply Chain, Education, Entertainment, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, and Telecommunications.
Among the survey highlights:
- 99% of organizations intend to be deploying a data cloud platform by the end of 2025, with only 1% of companies having no plan to deploy
- 57% of the least data mature organizations still need to migrate to a data cloud platform in 2025, compared to just 12% of the most data-mature companies
- The most data mature organizations are nearly 4 times more likely to be monetizing their data heading into 2025 than the least data mature companies
- Only 15% of organizations are still looking to begin deploying AI copilots in 2025, and just 12% are still looking to start integrating LLMs
- At least 94% of the most data mature organizations are already using AI for governance and compliance, data cleaning and processing, and workflow automation
To gauge how companies utilize their current data stack and prepare for the future in their respective industries, the State of Data 2025 report also classifies organizations across four discrete stages of data maturity. Best-practice-based evidence of harnessing and optimizing data systems is used to classify four stages of sophistication in a company’s data journey, moving from Chaos, to Order, to Insight, to Innovation.
Key Takeaways:
- Data Leaders Agree the Future is in the Cloud: 100% of Innovation organizations have already achieved the inevitable by migrating to cloud data platforms. Their less forward-thinking competitors who are still struggling to shed legacy tools are being left to play catch up, with 2025 poised to be the final phase of the cloud migration push.
- AI is No Longer a Toy but a Data Tool with Defined Uses: Most organizations are only now beginning to move beyond the shallow “novelty” functions of AI in order to begin to harness its true power. The role of AI in the modern data space has been developed and refined, and we now see data-mature organizations consistently using it as a tool for things like governance and compliance, data cleaning and preprocessing, workflow automation, and real-time fraud detection.
- Interoperability Issues are a Thing of the Past with Apache Iceberg: As the first truly open source table format, Apache Iceberg is changing the way organizations integrate their data platforms by facilitating a level of tool interoperability that was previously impossible. This means organizations are now freer than ever to choose the right tool for the job, without having to worry about the compatibility issues that once made coding and data infrastructure such a headache in the multi-tool environment.
- Rapid Technology Innovation Rewards Adaptability & Agility: The data landscape is shifting faster than ever, and successful organizations are staying innovative with a flexible approach, giving up on the very idea of a 5-year data strategy plan. By focusing on the next six to eighteen months ahead of them, these organizations prioritize adaptability because they know the data space changes rapidly, setting themselves up to take advantage of shortcuts that are made possible by the emergence of new technologies.
- Innovative Data Teams are Profit Centers, Not Cost Centers: With the right tools in place, innovative data teams are now poised to deliver real ROI, thanks to the efficiency made possible by automation and the consistent returns through data monetization. With these capabilities in place, organizations are able to consolidate their data team’s talent and adopt an RaaS (Results as a Service) mindset.
2025 is poised to be the year that the role of AI in data is fully realized, through integration with sophisticated data cloud platforms like Snowflake and Amazon Web Services, through more flexible data architectures made possible by emerging tools like Apache Iceberg, and through automation capabilities that will continue to transform the very role of data teams from cost centers to profit centers.
“That’s really the whole concept,” said Erik Duffield, CEO of Hakkoda. “Humans doing human jobs, but doing them far more effectively and efficiently, and doing things that weren’t possible before AI.”
The full text of the State of Data 2025 report is available here.
The study was conducted by Lawless Research as a blind survey. 20% of respondents came from organizations with less than $500M annual revenue; 29% with $500M to $999.9M annual revenue; 37% with $1B to $9.9B annual revenue; 14% with $10B or more annual revenue.
About Hakkōda
Hakkoda is a modern data consultancy, helping companies harness cloud platforms and AI capabilities. We combine deep industry expertise, a focus on data innovation, and our own IP to drive results in complex organizations. To learn more, visit hakkoda.io.
