The State of Data Confidence™
How organizations evolve from uncertainty to unwavering trust in their data
More regulations. More data. More pressure. Data leaders: You have a lot on your plate—and you probably don’t even know what you have (and don’t have) on it. The first step to reigning in the data chaos is governance.
Key highlights
Fostering data sharing by breaking down the data silos
What data-confident organizations do differently
The data quality rescue mission
Establishing data-centric AI governance
From compliance burden to enabling advantage
The culture shift behind unified governance
Introduction: The Quest for Data Confidence
Methodology & Participants
Most organizations don’t lack data — they lack confidence in their data.
And without confidence, every decision takes longer. Every AI initiative slows down. Every compliance check becomes a scramble. The risks get bigger. The progress gets smaller. And sooner or later, trust breaks down — between systems, between teams, and between what’s possible and what’s really happening.
We call this disconnect fragmented governance.
It’s the gap between what data could enable and what it actually supports — caused by mistrust, poor quality, siloed ownership and lack of transparency.
And it’s a growing liability.
Our research shows that 40% of professionals don’t trust their data. And the top reasons for that lack of trust aren’t surprising: fragmented systems, inconsistent definitions, opaque ownership and manual processes that can’t keep up with the speed of business. The result? Teams move cautiously. Leaders rely on gut feel. AI models fail in production. And innovation gets stuck.
But here’s the good news: Organizations are starting to change that story.
They’re moving from firefighting to future-proofing. From reactive governance to active alignment. From fragmented policies to unified systems. And at the center of that shift is a single organizing idea: Data Confidence.
To discover how organizations are effectively navigating this journey, Collibra, in partnership with Ascend2 Research, surveyed 458 data governance, risk and compliance professionals across industries. This report follows that journey — from dysfunction to trust, from chaos to clarity. It explores the most persistent blockers and the biggest opportunities. And it shows how leading organizations are turning their data into something they can believe in — and build on.
