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65% OF ANALYSTS SAY AI WORKS BEST WHEN THE LOGIC IS MANAGED AT THE BUSINESS LEVEL, ALTERYX RESEARCH FINDS

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6 months ago

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Alteryx, Inc., an AI-ready data and analytics company, today released its “2026 State of Data Analysts in the Age of AI” report, revealing that while AI is becoming central to business decision-making, human oversight remains critical to ensuring AI-generated outcomes are trusted and actionable. The research found that analysts spend nearly four hours per week validating and correcting AI-generated outputs, while poor data quality and governance continue to undermine AI and analytics initiatives. The findings also show that AI works best when the people closest to the business stay involved, with 65% of analysts saying AI and agent-based systems are most productive when the logic is managed at the business level. As organizations accelerate toward more agentic AI systems, the need for trusted data, governed logic and workflows, and human oversight continues to grow.

Key Findings at a Glance: 

  • 96% of data analysts are actively using AI tools in their roles 
  • 47% of failed AI and analytics projects are attributed to poor data quality or governance 
  • 65% of analysts say AI and agent-based systems are most productive when the logic is managed at the business level
  • Data analysts spend an average of 5.7 hours per week preparing and cleaning data, and an additional 3.7 hours per week checking and correcting AI outputs
  • Only 3% prefer fully autonomous AI without routine human involvement, while 46% favor a human-in-the-loop approach 

The findings point to a broader shift in how organizations are operationalizing AI. As businesses move from experimentation to deploying AI in core workflows and decision-making, trust increasingly depends on more than model performance alone. Analysts and operations teams play a critical role because they maintain business logic, governance standards, and operational context that help AI systems produce reliable and actionable outcomes.

Human Oversight Still Remains Central in the Age of Agentic AI

As AI becomes a bigger part of an analyst’s day-to-day work, the impact goes beyond simple productivity gains. Businesses are quickly adopting more advanced AI capabilities, like agentic AI, but, on the contrary, analysts are now spending more time reviewing, validating, and guiding AI-generated work. Over half (59%) expect to use AI agents to generate insights within the next year, and many are already using them to draft communications (59%) and manage workflows (54%).

Even as AI takes on a larger role in data-to-insight workflows, analysts remain closely involved because they are ultimately accountable for the quality, accuracy, and reliability of the outcomes. Nearly half (46%) prefer a human-in-the-loop approach where AI systems require human approval before taking action, while only 3% are comfortable with fully autonomous AI. The findings suggest that as AI becomes more embedded in business processes, trust, oversight, and human judgment remain essential to ensuring outputs are accurate, explainable, and aligned with business needs. 

“AI is already influencing how businesses make decisions every day, but our research highlights a reality many organizations are now confronting: trust matters just as much as speed,” said Andy MacMillan, CEO at Alteryx. “The people closest to the business play a critical role because they understand the logic, rules, and operational context behind decisions, whether that’s pricing models, compliance requirements, or operational thresholds, and that business logic is constantly evolving. AI can accelerate work, but organizations still need governed workflows and human oversight to ensure outcomes are visible, understandable, repeatable, and auditable across the organization.”

Data Challenges Continue to Limit AI Success

Behind every successful AI initiative is a strong data foundation, and many organizations are still struggling to get there. Even as AI adoption grows, ongoing issues with data quality, access, and governance continue to slow progress and limit AI effectiveness. Analysts say either poor data quality or governance is responsible for nearly half (47%) of failed AI and analytics projects, making it the biggest barrier to AI success.

Most (79%) analysts believe their data is ready for AI at scale, yet the day-to-day reality looks much different. Analysts still spend an average of nearly 6 hours each week preparing and cleaning data, plus nearly another 4 hours reviewing and correcting AI-generated outputs, checking for issues such as incorrect calculations, inconsistent metrics, or responses that don’t align with company policies and definitions. Governance concerns are also rising, with access control and data exposure (42%) ranking as the top issue, followed closely by regulatory compliance (41%). These findings show that as companies push AI deeper into business operations, the people closest to the business increasingly need to provide the context AI relies on, including not just clean data, but also the business logic, workflows, policies, and governance that shape how decisions are made and acted on.

AI Becomes Core to Business Decision-Making

AI is quickly becoming part of everyday business decision-making. Nearly all analysts surveyed (96%) say they use AI tools in their work every day, and organizations are already seeing the impact. Among IT leaders, 85% report noticeable gains in employee productivity, while 79% say AI is helping teams make decisions faster.

As AI adoption grows, AI-generated insights are carrying more weight across the business. Half (50%) of analysts and 62% of IT leaders say that most or almost all business-critical decisions are now influenced by AI insights.

But generating insights faster doesn’t always make decisions easier. The biggest challenge organizations face is helping business leaders understand and trust AI-generated outputs, with 43% saying interpreting and explaining AI insights remains a key barrier. At the same time, companies continue embedding AI into core technologies like cloud data warehouses (40%) and business intelligence tools (39%), making AI an increasingly central part of how businesses operate.

The Evolving Role of the Data Analyst

Analysts increasingly see AI as a collaborator that changes how work gets done, not a replacement for human expertise. In fact, 82% say automation is making them more effective by helping them work faster and focus on higher-value tasks.

As AI becomes more embedded in everyday operations, the role of the analyst is evolving from producing insights to guiding how AI systems operate. Over the next five years, 40% believe changing skill requirements will have the biggest impact on their responsibilities, while 36% point to the growing importance of real-time analytics. The findings suggest that analysts and operational teams will play an increasingly important role in defining, validating, and evolving the business logic AI systems rely on to deliver trusted, repeatable outcomes. This includes the rules, calculations, and operational processes that determine how the business actually runs, whether it’s updating tax rules in different countries, changing sales commission structures, adjusting supply chain thresholds, or applying compliance and pricing policies as conditions evolve.

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KnowBe4 Expands Global Data Residency to Six Markets Across the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and South America

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12 hours ago

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November 10, 2026

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KnowBe4, the global leader in digital workforce security, securing both humans and AI agents, today announced its commitment to expanding in-region data residency across six key international markets: Australia, Brazil, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and the United Emirates (UAE).

The expansion addresses escalating regulatory complexity worldwide. By offering local data residency, KnowBe4 enables organizations across industries to secure their whole workforce, people and AI agents, while aligning with local data privacy frameworks.

These new regions are in addition to KnowBe4’s existing data residency capabilities across Canada, the European Union (Germany and Ireland), the United Kingdom and the United States.

“As the global regulatory environment evolves and cyber threats grow more sophisticated, international organizations require clarity and confidence regarding where their sensitive data is stored,” said Bryan Palma, CEO at KnowBe4. “Expanding our in-region data residency across these six markets gives our customers greater control over their data at rest, so they can secure their workforces with confidence.”

Launch in each new region is contingent on the underlying cloud infrastructure becoming generally available. Customer data at rest in these regions will be available across the KnowBe4 Platform.

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Cambridge Health Group and Heriot-Watt University to advance research and innovation in the GCC

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4 days ago

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November 6, 2026

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Cambridge Health Group (“CHG an international specialist healthcare group providing post-acute care and a subsidiary of Amanat Holdings PJSC (“Amanat”), has signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Heriot-Watt University (“Heriot-Watt”) to advance academic research in rehabilitation, long-term care and specialised care.

The agreement brings together CHG’s clinical expertise in long-term care and post-acute rehabilitation across six facilities in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with Heriot-Watt University’s pioneering research in healthy ageing, rehabilitation robotics and assistive technologies. Through its Global Research Institute in Health and Care Technologies and the National Robotarium, Heriot-Watt combines expertise in engineering, artificial intelligence and behavioural science to address complex challenges in health and care. Heriot-Watt’s global presence spans five campuses across Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia, with plans to establish a further campus in Saudi Arabia.

Together, the organisations will connect research with clinical practice, creating opportunities to develop and evaluate innovations that support rehabilitation, maximise independence and improve quality of life for people with complex, long-term care needs. The partners will also pursue national and international research grants, including collaboration with government and industry partners.

The partnership will also support the development of the region’s specialist healthcare workforce through academic training, executive education and tailored development programmes. These will include postgraduate research supervision, internships, industry placements and mentoring, helping connect academic learning with practical experience.

Professor Dame Heather McGregor, member of Heriot-Watt University’s Executive, said: “Universities have an important role in ensuring that research responds to the needs of society and that its benefits extend beyond academia. Our partnership with Cambridge Health Group brings our researchers closer to the questions and challenges shaping healthcare practice, creating opportunities to translate knowledge into meaningful improvements in care. Through education, professional development and practical experience, we look forward to supporting the skills and expertise the region will need as its healthcare sector continues to evolve. We look forward to doing meaningful work together.”

Wael K. Abdallah, Group Chief Executive Officer of Cambridge Health Group, said: “As healthcare systems across the region evolve, advancing specialised care will increasingly depend on our ability to connect research, clinical expertise and real-world healthcare needs. At Cambridge Health Group, we see research and innovation as important enablers of better care outcomes and the continued development of post-acute healthcare across the GCC. Our collaboration with Heriot-Watt creates opportunities to bring academic expertise closer to clinical practice, strengthen the capabilities of our workforce and contribute to the long-term advancement of the sector.”

The partnership represents a step towards translating research into practical advances in specialised care, with the potential to benefit patients, healthcare professionals and the wider sector.

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Leading AI Builders Make Massive Commitments on VAST-Powered Infrastructure

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4 days ago

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November 6, 2026

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On the back of the biggest buildout in data infrastructure history, VAST Data, the AI Operating System company, today announced that it is at the center of many of the largest deployments in this space. In the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, just 14 of the more than 1,000 companies VAST serves have made more than $10 billion in aggregate commitments for VAST Data software and supporting platform hardware. The scale and breadth of these investments have no known precedent in the history of data infrastructure and signal that VAST is leading the world in this explosive buildout of superintelligent systems.

The VAST AI OS is the platform of choice for leading AI clouds and frontier AI labs to enable scalable AI training and inference. In 2026, the expansion of AI use cases and the realization of the value of superintelligent systems has reinforced the mandate for organizations to build with industrial-grade storage and database infrastructure to support GPUs and AI accelerators.

The progress VAST has made:

  • 14 customers have each committed over $100M in VAST Data-powered system build outs
  • Four of those 14 customers have each committed over $1B this year
  • VAST Data-powered systems now support 9 of the top 10 frontier AI labs

“Growth at this scale only happens when an entire industry is rebuilding at once,” said Renen Hallak, Founder and CEO of VAST Data. “That’s what the new AI stack is. It’s being built for models and agents, not people and applications, and data sits at the center of it. The companies building it at the largest scale, for people, agents and now robots, are choosing VAST to anchor it.”

Supply Aligned Through 2029

The scale of data capacity VAST’s partners are delivering is unprecedented, and is now representing a significant percentage of the overall global NAND flash produced for enterprise data centers. At a time of such extreme supply chain pressure, VAST is also now taking steps to ensure the next phase of superintelligent system buildout. Increased flash supply takes years to bring online due to the investments in NAND fabs.

Because VAST is partnered with so many of the world’s AI builders, VAST has unique visibility into where capacity demand is headed. The company has structured agreements with its supply chain partners to align more than 200 exabytes of flash capacity through 2029. This forward planning supports VAST’s scaling objectives for the next several years, maps to the growth outlook of its largest customers and helps the AI clouds, labs, enterprises and government organizations building on the VAST AI OS plan their infrastructure with confidence.

“Planning for hundreds of exabytes isn’t only about protecting our customers’ growth projections,” said Jeff Denworth, Co-Founder of VAST Data. “It’s about keeping flash available to hundreds of clouds, so that every AI builder, not just the largest, has the capacity it needs to build and compete.”

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