Cloudera, the only company bringing AI to data anywhere, today released its latest global survey, The Data Readiness Index: Understanding the Foundations for Successful AI, examining how prepared enterprises are to support AI at scale. Surveying more than 300 IT leaders in the EMEA region, including strong insights from Saudi Arabia, the report finds that while AI adoption is growing, most organizations still lack the data foundation needed for success.

The findings highlight a sharp contrast in how effectively organizations track their data. Nearly 9 in 10 EMEA  IT leaders claim complete visibility into where all their data resides, compared to just 32% of respondents in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, 62% of Saudi respondents cite data access restrictions as a major roadblock to effective data use.

This gap highlights an emerging ‘AI readiness illusion’: the belief that organizations are prepared to scale AI even as critical data challenges remain unresolved.

“Enterprises aren’t struggling to adopt AI, they’re struggling to operationalize it beyond experiments,” said Sergio Gago, Chief Technology Officer at Cloudera. “AI is only as effective as the data that fuels it. Without seamless access to all their data, organizations limit the accuracy, trust, and business value that AI can deliver. You can’t do AI without data.”

AI Adoption is High, but ROI Remains Elusive

While AI is now deeply embedded across the enterprise, achieving consistent returns on investment remains difficult due to a sharp geographical divide in implementation hurdles. Across EMEA, the struggle is largely centered on the inputs, with data quality issues (18%) and cost overruns (16%) cited as the primary causes of lackluster ROI. However, Saudi Arabia presents a different challenge focused on execution. In the Kingdom, weak integration into workflows is the overwhelming barrier at 29%, nearly doubling the concern over data quality, which sits at 15%.

These regional nuances are further tangled by significant infrastructure limitations. Around 65% of respondents in KSA report that performance constraints have hindered operational initiatives, highlighting the immense difficulty of scaling AI across fragmented environments.

Bridging The Data Gap

At the core of these challenges is a significant disconnect between data optimism and operational reality.

The report highlights that 95% of KSA respondents are highly confident in their data, but only 32% of that data is currently fully governed. While this outpaces the broader EMEA region, where only 26% of data is governed despite 91% confidence, it highlights a critical execution gap that organizations are now racing to fill.

The Kingdom is uniquely positioned to bridge this divide with 100% of Saudi respondents ready to adopt new governance frameworks, and 79% being extremely willing to transform their operations. This regional commitment suggests that Saudi Arabia’s proactive approach will likely outpace its peers in the race toward AI and digital maturity.

Strategic Alignment and the Accountability Gap

While leadership in both the EMEA and KSA regions understands the necessity of data infrastructure, the execution and accountability frameworks are worlds apart. More than 90% of EMEA respondents report a well-defined data strategy tied directly to business objectives, while only over half  (53%) of Saudi Arabian respondents feel the same level of alignment.

Accountability and internal culture further widen this divide. In EMEA, 69% of leaders hold the CIO or CTO chiefly responsible for data readiness, whereas in Saudi Arabia, only 35% place ultimate responsibility on this role, indicating a more emerging ownership structure.

Beyond accountability and alignment, respondents in Saudi Arabia face a unique internal hurdle: 50% struggle with insufficient data literacy, while nearly a third (32%) cite a lack of executive sponsorship.

Data Readiness Will Define the Next Phase of Enterprise AI

As enterprise AI shifts from experimentation to execution, data readiness is emerging as the defining factor separating leaders from laggards.

Organizations able to fully access and govern all their data, wherever it resides, are far better equipped to deliver trusted, scalable AI. Notably, every respondent in the report indicated their organization is willing to adapt existing frameworks to support true data readiness.

As enterprises confront the limits of the AI readiness illusion, the path forward is clear: unlocking AI’s full value will require more than ambition; it will demand genuine data readiness. Those that close this gap will be best positioned to drive lasting impact and lead the next era of intelligent business.

Optro, the leading AI-powered GRC platform empowering enterprises to transform risk into opportunity, has announced several product capabilities to boost the effectiveness of customers’ risk management programs and enable them to innovate with AI confidently and responsibly. These capabilities follow shortly after the company changed its name to reflect what its AI-powered GRC platform enables: a single, coherent view across infosec, compliance, risk, and audit.

“Cyber risk now moves at machine speed, and legacy GRC tools can no longer keep up,” said Happy Wang, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Optro. “By leveraging AI to predict cyber risk, surface real-time insights, and accelerate mitigation, we help organizations shift from reactive reporting to proactive risk defense—building a true system of action that is ready for the AI era.”

Optro’s latest Risk Intelligence report found that AI governance program maturity is advancing, but unevenly. AI adoption continues to outpace AI governance, with 85 percent of organizations reporting they have integrated AI into their core operations or deployed it across multiple functions, while only a quarter report comprehensive visibility into employee AI use. At the same time, only 34 percent of organizations report their AI governance program is strategic and continuously improving. As these challenges become increasingly prevalent across industries, Optro has released the following product capabilities to help customers turn clarity into action:

• Unified AI Governance: Serves as the essential orchestration layer for AI governance. By bridging the gap between policies & frameworks, your AI tech stack, and human oversight, this capability enables a unified, automated approach. We ensure that AI risks are visible, compliance is streamlined, and governance policies are enforceable across your entire organization.

• Cyber Risk: Vulnerability Risk Monitoring: Provides a clear narrative of how a specific vulnerability affects an organization’s security posture and bottom line. This AI-powered functionality enables customers to understand the true business impact of a vulnerability. Included with IT and Cyber Risk Management (formerly IT Risk Management), it’s a paradigm shift in how organizations defend their digital perimeter.

• Continuous Control Monitoring: With AI-driven recommendations for the controls best suited for automation, and a library of ready-to-use monitor templates, teams can bypass manual setup to start monitoring controls immediately. This capability helps customers reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and gain more timely visibility into control performance. By automating evidence collection and surfacing potential issues earlier, teams can address gaps more efficiently and move toward a more continuous approach to assurance.

Magna AI, Inc., the global integrated‑value‑chain sovereign AI transformation leader established through a partnership between Trend Micro and Wistron Digital Technology Holding Company (WDH) in strategic collaboration with NVIDIA, today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Corvit Networks (Pvt.) Ltd., a leading technology training and digital services organization in Pakistan. The agreement establishes a strategic collaboration framework to advance sovereign AI infrastructure, platforms, and workforce capabilities aimed at accelerating Pakistan’s national AI transformation.

The partnership combines Magna’s expertise in AI engineering, infrastructure, and governance, with Corvit’s extensive nationwide reach across Pakistan’s government, enterprise, and academic ecosystems. Together, the organizations aim to support the development of scalable and secure AI capabilities designed to enable organizations across Pakistan to deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) at national and enterprise scale.

This strategic initiative comes at a time when artificial intelligence is emerging as a critical driver of economic growth. According to a PwC report cited by the Saudi Data and AI Authority, AI could contribute up to 5.6% of GDP in economies comparable to Pakistan, potentially generating an AI-driven economic impact of $10–20 billion within Pakistan’s projected $60 billion digital economy by 2030. Globally, annual investment in AI-dedicated infrastructure is projected to reach $400 billion by 2030, underscoring the growing strategic importance of national AI infrastructure for economic competitiveness.

The collaboration will focus on developing the foundational building blocks required to support Pakistan’s AI ecosystem. This includes the joint development of sovereign AI data centers and AI factories designed to support government, public-sector, and enterprise workloads while meeting national data residency and regulatory requirements. Building on this foundation, the partnership will support the creation of next-generation AI applications tailored to priority sectors, including predictive intelligence, agentic AI systems, digital twins, and advanced operational analytics. Security and governance will remain central to the initiative, with enterprise-grade capabilities such as model protection, threat analytics, and AI-driven security operations aligned with national cybersecurity frameworks. Both organizations will also provide end-to-end AI transformation services to help institutions transition from readiness assessments to full-scale AI deployment, while investing in workforce development through AI academies, professional certification programs, and executive education initiatives designed to prepare Pakistan’s talent ecosystem for the AI economy.

“Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming foundational to economic competitiveness and national innovation” said, Dr. Moataz BinAli, CEO, Magna AI. Pakistan stands at a pivotal moment in its digital transformation journey. Through this partnership with Corvit Networks, Magna aims to support the development of sovereign AI infrastructure, platforms, and talent capabilities that can help organizations across the country unlock the full potential of AI.”

“Corvit Networks has spent decades building trusted relationships across Pakistan’s technology ecosystem,” said Kashif Ul Haq, CEO, Corvit Networks (Pvt.) Ltd. “Combining our nationwide reach in enterprise enablement and technology education with Magna AI’s global expertise in AI infrastructure and transformation, we are committed to helping strengthen Pakistan’s digital capabilities and prepare the next generation of AI-ready talent.”