21/05/2026
5 months into 2026, and every AI metric has moved dramatically.
Adoption, benchmarks, spending, and executive involvement. All up. Every number moved except one.
92.7% of executives still say data is the biggest barrier to deploying AI.
Not the models, not the budget, but the data underneath. Where it lives, who can access it, how it flows between systems, and whether any of it holds up under regulatory scrutiny. Most organizations adopted AI before they answered any of those questions.
The models got smarter, and the infrastructure got bigger, but the foundation hasn't changed.
That's the work we've been doing at VOLO for 20+ years: building the data architecture, security layers, and compliance frameworks that make AI actually work in production.