Dun & Bradstreet says AI-ready data lifts returns as business spending plans rise
Businesses are continuing to raise AI budgets over the next 12 months, but returns are not improving at the same pace as companies push more projects toward production. Dun & Bradstreet’s latest survey of 10,000 businesses across 32 countries shows data readiness is the clearest divider between organizations reporting strong AI returns and those still seeing only limited gains.
Highlights
- 65% of businesses plan to increase AI spending in the next 12 months, but only 28% report strong or broad AI returns, unchanged from last quarter.
- Only 8% of companies say their enterprise data is fully AI-ready, with 33% mostly ready and 44% partially ready, highlighting a gap in readiness.
- 98% of businesses have active AI projects, and 37% are scaling pilots to production—up from 34% last quarter—with Americas and Western Europe leading increased investments at 68%.
Survey findings highlight gap between spending and readiness
According to Dun & Bradstreet, 65% of businesses plan to increase spending on AI over the next 12 months, while 28% report broad or strong returns from their AI efforts, unchanged from the previous quarter.Only 8% of businesses say their enterprise data is fully ready to support AI at scale, while 33% describe it as mostly ready and 44% as partially ready. The survey indicates companies are investing in AI faster than they are strengthening the data foundations needed to support those systems.
Nearly all businesses, 98%, report active AI initiatives, and 37% say they are scaling AI pilots into production, up from 34% in the third quarter. Spending intentions are broad across regions, with 60% to 68% of businesses in every region expecting to raise AI investment, led by the Americas and Western Europe at about 68%.
Gary Kotovets, chief data and analytics officer at Dun & Bradstreet, says the quarter’s results show that data readiness is the main factor separating pilot projects from meaningful profit-and-loss impact. He says organizations working from verified business context are achieving stronger returns even as overall AI ROI levels off.
In our earlier article on AI agents adoption among large U.S. companies, we noted that many CEOs are seeing efficiency and growth improvements, but only a small share view the technology as truly transformational so far. The survey highlighted a persistent gap between deploying AI tools and doing the harder work of modernizing processes, preparing data, and building the talent needed to scale AI into core operations.
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