Top Three Focus Areas for CDAOs in 2025

As we step into 2025, the business landscape is once again being reshaped by emerging technologies, with DeepSeek making significant waves in the AI sector. In this rapidly evolving environment, enterprises are eager to harness AI's potential to secure a competitive edge. With this focus, Chief Data & Analytics Officers (CDAOs) are at the forefront, laying the groundwork for these transformative initiatives.

Currently, our CDAO communities are engaged in completing our annual Leadership Prospective Survey, providing invaluable insights into their mission critical priorities, challenges, and investment strategies for the year ahead. Initial survey results affirm AI’s growing influence on their roles, as they strive to drive innovation and deliver true business value through their initiatives.

These insights, coupled with in-depth discussions with our community members, shape the agendas for our CDAO community gatherings throughout the year. Based on the preliminary survey responses and executive conversations, we have identified three key themes that will be the focal points for CDAOs in 2025, which are outlined below.

1. Linking Data, Analytics and AI Initiatives to Business Value

With the current emphasis on AI and generative AI, along with increasing investments in these areas, it is crucial for CDAOs to focus on delivering business value and demonstrating ROI. CDAOs are uniquely positioned to guide their organizations through AI opportunities and develop strategies to mitigate risks, ultimately to achieve desired business outcomes.

Gartner research underscores this point, stating, “D&A leaders are the experts not only in leveraging technology for business value, but also in managing the knowledge source of AI. Thus, their involvement in AI strategies is critical to ensuring the organization’s AI ambitions align with business outcomes and the organization’s AI-readiness.”

In our recent CDAO community survey on AI adoption, a common theme emerged highlighting the necessity for CDAOs to closely collaborate with the business to address key challenges in order to create the most value, rather than simply starting with AI. As one CDAO noted, "AI is a tool that has to be applied wisely to a business problem. AI can unlock tremendous value for businesses across both top line and bottom lines."
 

1. Maturing D&A Culture with Data Democratization and Self-Service Analytics

Data-driven culture, data democratization and self-service analytics have long been central to the mission critical priorities of CDAOs. With the increasing focus on AI, CDAOs are once again spearheading the evolution of their organizational cultures to include not only data literacy but AI literacy, which is essential for realizing business value. According to Gartner, “AI cannot yield business value without AI-ready people, or users with the necessary skills and willingness to fully leverage AI to empower their abilities.”

To instill this mindset and ensure the successful adoption of new self-service data capabilities, change management has become a pivotal aspect of the CDAO role. We recently surveyed our CDAO community members on their approach to change management, and one D&A leader shared their strategy for navigating change fatigue in this environment of constant change: "We prioritize clear communication, provide continuous support and training, involve employees in the change process, recognize and celebrate small wins, and ensure adequate rest periods between major initiatives."

1. Modernizing Data Governance to Adopt and Scale Advanced D&A and AI Capabilities

Data governance is critical to ensuring an AI-ready organization. In previous years, many members of the CDAO community expressed challenges in securing executive buy-in and funding for their governance frameworks, as business stakeholders often struggled to see its tangible value. However, the current focus on AI is shedding light on how foundational data governance is and why it should be invested in to enhance innovation. 

In our CDAO survey on AI, many CDAOs shared their thoughts on this matter. One CDAO said, "We need to move faster than we are without losing sight of the fact that data governance basics will be critical to its success."

Another shared, "Enough focus is not being given to foundationally setting up the data that feeds AI models. There is a lot yet to be done in terms of data management and governance before AI can become a standard solution to solve problems.”

As we kick off our 2025 community programs, we are excited to bring together D&A leaders from leading organizations to connect on these critical themes. To become part of your local CDAO community, we invite you to apply to join today. If you are already a member, sign in to MyEvanta to register for your upcoming community programs.