A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study has found that while 94% of organisations recognise connected data and workflows as critical to AI success, fewer than one in three say their systems are actually well connected today.

The research, "Bridging the Readiness Gap to the Agentic Enterprise" commissioned by Hyland, surveyed 325 business leaders across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in December 2025. It found that AI ambition is advancing faster than the operational foundations required to support it.

The gap is particularly acute for unstructured data - the emails, PDFs, images and document-based content that make up the bulk of day-to-day business information. While 65% of respondents said their structured data was somewhat or fully prepared for AI use, only 39% said the same about unstructured data.

Hyland CEO Jitesh S. Ghai said the findings pointed to a governance and workflow problem, not a technology shortage.

"As organisations move into the next phase of AI, the challenge is no longer just access to models, but whether the business is ready to operationalise AI in a way that is governed, contextual, and trusted.

“The agentic enterprise takes shape when AI is embedded into real operational workflows, grounded in the content, data, and controls the business already depends on. For many organisations, unstructured data is both the most overlooked asset and the biggest obstacle to scaling AI effectively."

The study identified the top barriers to AI adoption as data silos (54%), data security and privacy issues (48%), data format issues (46%), insufficient data management and governance (46%) and an unclear data strategy (45%). Only 10% of respondents cited a lack of data as a primary challenge.

Operational embedding of AI also remains limited. Among organisations actively using, piloting or exploring AI, 39% said most AI-enabled workflows still rely on separate, standalone tools. Only 12% reported AI embedded directly within the flow of work. Fewer than half - 45% - said their AI projects were delivering expected outcomes.

IDC Senior Research Manager Amy Machado said organisations needed to invest in their content infrastructure before they could realise the benefits of advanced AI.

"As companies move toward advanced and agentic forms of AI, the bar is being raised - not just for technology, but for how information flows, decisions are governed, and value is measured. The organisations that invest in modernising their content foundations and embedding intelligence into real workflows will be best positioned to turn AI ambition into sustained impact."

The research was fielded across organisations from SMBs to enterprises of 10,000-plus employees, spanning manufacturing, technology, education, financial services, government and other sectors.

The full report is available at: Hyland.com