EY Ireland Trusted Data Report 2023

How Irish organisations can embed trust along the data continuum

Trusted data is foundational for enhanced competitiveness and better decision making as organisations embrace increased use of analytics and AI.

In brief

  • Data needs to be continuously monitored to ensure its quality and reliability at every point on its usage journey.
  • Issue of data trust assumes greater significance as organisations look to unlock potential of advances in AI and advanced analytics.
  • Robust data governance frameworks are need of the hour for ensuring that data is used ethically and responsibly.

Data plays a key role in almost every aspect of our lives. How our food is produced, how we interact with public services, how we manage our finances, how healthcare is delivered — all these and more are critically dependent on data and how it is used by organisations. In addition, the ability to leverage data is rapidly becoming a competitive differentiator for organisations. The challenge for many of them, however, lies in the degree to which they can trust the data that they use.

Trust in information is becoming increasingly important as a new wave of innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) is blurring the lines between internal and external data.

The survey for the EY Ireland Trusted Data Report 2023 was carried out among some of Ireland’s leading public and private sector organisations with a view to establishing how far advanced they are on data usage, AI adoption, and data trust.

The survey found that Irish organisations demonstrated a strong understanding of the need for trust across the data lifecycle, and that progress has been made on key elements of the trust journey.

Data which isn’t subject to continuous oversight cannot be fully trusted. It must be subject to constant verification and validation from the point of collection all the way along its journey to its use in analytics and AI.

This is the data trust continuum.

As organisations embrace increased use of analytics and AI, there is therefore more to be done to extend and formalise the trust continuum. With the rise of AI and generative AI (GenAI), in particular, the issue of data trust has assumed an even greater significance.

“Trust, or lack of it, may well be the greatest single barrier
to AI adoption. While a certain degree of
caution may be understandable, organisations should
not allow doubt and uncertainty to prevent them from
availing of the benefits offered by the very many low
risk use cases for AI and GenAI.”

Eoin O'Reilly, Partner, Head of Data, Analytics and AI at EY Ireland

A photographic portrait of Eoin O'Reilly

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A breach of trust at any point on the continuum can have potentially devastating consequences for the organisation and indeed for society.

Governance and strong data management are key for data trust. There needs to be a more holistic approach to building data trust in organisations – this starts with how data aligns to business strategy and runs through to data control across the data lifecycle and its responsible use. Organisations need to develop a comprehensive framework that balances strategic vision with appropriate management of risks and controls.

Our survey reveals that organisations are at various points on their data trust journeys with the strategic focus shifting to how data can be leveraged to add value to the business. They have robust data governance and compliance frameworks in place, but there is acceptance that these are merely the starting point on their journey along the data trust continuum.

Summary

Irish organisations recognise and appreciate the crucial importance of data trust for their business operation. While there is a significant variation in the data maturity of organisations, they understand the need for continuous management and monitoring of data at every point along the trust continuum. They are taking a wait and see attitude to AI, but they must take care that this does not result in them missing out on valuable opportunities.

About this article

Photographic portrait of Eoin O'Reilly
Eoin O'Reilly
EY Ireland Partner, Head of AI & Data
Passionate about innovation, data and AI.
Related topics
Assurance
Data and decision intelligence
AI
Emerging technology
Trusted Intelligence

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