In my last podcast on The Data Strategy Show, I spoke to Malcolm Hawker and one of the subjects that came up was “mindset”.

In the last article of 2024, I wanted to look ahead at 2025 and reflect on the mindset that is required for the coming year and how organisations need to progress in their data and AI strategies.

If we know anything about the past it’s the fact that many an organisation tends to keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. That can’t go on any longer as AI is no longer a concept confined to experimental projects; it’s an engine for business transformation. Not that it hasn’t been in the context of Machine Learning, but what I see is many companies being stuck in the past, applying outdated thinking to an emerging playing field.

As we approach 2025, the companies that succeed will be the ones strong and bold enough to abandon their old-school approaches and rethink their data and AI strategies. Those that don’t will find themselves irrelevant and in the mire with an unpleasant odour as my old professor used to say when my reasoning wasn’t quite up to snuff!

Most organisations still treat data and AI as standalone initiatives, technical projects to be executed in silos. They obsess over:

• Building a data platform before understanding the business problem.
• Chasing “AI readiness” without a clear sense of purpose.
• Measuring success in terms of activity (dashboards built, models deployed) rather than outcomes.

This mindset is why many data and AI initiatives fail to deliver value. Its why CEOs complain about the investment committed, while their teams churn out models no one uses.

To thrive in this new era of AI, businesses need a fundamental mindset shift. As I always say AI isn’t magic, and it isn’t a side project. It’s a tool for solving real business problems, and your strategy needs to reflect that.

This new mindset, doesn’t need a new sexy approach, it just needs a bit of common sense, which isn’t lacking in organisations at all. I have been using frameworks and approaches in my work for over 20 years, when things don’t work or they go out of date, I review them and make changes, or work with my clients to review what works, what needs to be chucked out with the bath water and what newness needs to be infused. Sometimes, it works, sometimes, it doesn’t and we just need to keep iterating until we land on an approach that feels like it’s the right way. So, when I think about 2025, here is an approach that has been working for a while now:

1. Business-Led, Not Tech-Led: Start with the value you want to create, not the technology you want to use.
2. Integrated Thinking: Your data and AI strategy must be inseparable from your business strategy.
3. Speed and Agility: Build strategies that deliver quick wins while keeping long-term objectives in focus.
4. Cultural Readiness: AI success isn’t just technical it requires change at every level of your organisation.

Those 4 points aren’t new at all and that’s why they work. But the mindset overhaul is all about challenging the current ways of working and just looking through a different lens. Here are the 3 typical challenges along with their solutions, which again isn’t going to blow your mind, but it will set you up for success, which is what all organisations want:

Mindset Overhaul

• Challenge: How do you move leadership and teams away from treating AI as a shiny new toy?
• Solution: Start with business problems and measurable outcomes. Make it impossible for anyone to ignore the value AI can bring.

Value Alignment

• Challenge: Are your data and AI initiatives solving meaningful problems, or are they just pet projects?
• Solution: Align every AI initiative to your top business priorities. Stop chasing hype.

Organisational Resistance

• Challenge: How do you embed AI into decision-making across the business?
• Solution: Invest in decision intelligence and ensure your teams trust and use the outputs to reach the outcomes and know how to implement the decisions they need to take and make.

As AI starts to reshape the business landscape, many businesses can no longer afford vague aspirations or scatter gun AI investments. Success in 2025 demands a clear, actionable strategy grounded in measurable value creation and ruthless prioritisation.

But the truth is most organisations are fumbling in the dark. They chase tools, not outcomes. They confuse activity with progress, and worse, they waste resources on initiatives that fail to move the needle for their business.

If your data and AI strategy doesn’t deliver tangible value fast it’s not a strategy. It’s an expensive experiment. You need a structured approach that aligns your efforts with your organisation’s priorities, drives immediate impact, and builds a foundation for long-term transformation.

This framework isn’t about vague theories or buzzwords. It’s about getting practical, asking the right questions, and ensuring every data and AI initiative contributes directly to your organisation’s success.

Here’s how to move from noise to clarity, from activity to outcomes, and from old-school thinking to a strategy built for 2025:

1. Define Value What problems are you solving, and what outcomes do you expect? How will you measure success (e.g., revenue growth, cost savings, risk reduction)?
2. Build Business Use Cases Prioritise high-value, achievable use cases that deliver quick wins. Test, iterate, and scale fast.
3. Align Operating Models Do your data and AI operating models support agility and collaboration? Is your governance slowing you down or enabling value creation? (I don’t mean data governance, I mean decision making)
4. Embed into the Business How will AI and data be used daily to drive decision-making? Are your people equipped to trust and act on insights?
5. Measure and Adapt Are you consistently measuring business outcomes, not activity? What lessons are you learning, and how are you adjusting?

As a leader, the responsibility for your organisation’s data and AI strategy rests squarely on your shoulders. You can delegate the execution, but you cannot delegate the outcomes. And yet, many leaders fail to ask the right questions—choosing instead to chase trends, rely on overworked teams, or pin hopes on vague promises of “innovation.”

Here’s the reality: if your data and AI strategy isn’t delivering value, it’s failing. And if you, as part of the C-suite, aren’t actively challenging its direction, you’re complicit in that failure.

2025 will be a defining year. The winners will be the companies whose leaders refuse to settle for mediocrity, who demand clarity and accountability, and who are brave enough to ask the tough, uncomfortable questions that uncover blind spots.

These five questions are not just checkboxes; they are the litmus test for whether your strategy is ready to compete—or destined to crumble. Answer them honestly, and you’ll know whether you’re on the right path or heading for irrelevance.

Here’s what every C-suite leader needs to confront head-on:

1. Where is the value? If this project doesn’t deliver measurable business value, why are we doing it?
2. Who is accountable? Is ownership of AI initiatives clear, or are we passing the buck between IT and business units?
3. Are we moving fast enough? How long does it take us to go from idea to implementation? Can we move faster without compromising quality?
4. Do we trust our data? If teams don’t trust the data, they won’t use it. Are we investing enough in quality and governance?
5. Are we prepared for failure? Not every initiative will succeed. How do we fail fast and learn without losing momentum?

2025 will not wait for you. This is no incremental evolution, it’s a new mindset that demands leaders redefine how they think about data, AI, and, most importantly, their role in driving transformation. The real challenge isn’t technological; it’s existential.

If your organisation is clinging to outdated strategies, hoping to squeeze value out of yesterday’s playbook, you’re not just falling behind, you’re actively writing your own obsolescence. AI is not a tool to experiment with at the edges of your business; it’s the engine that will define whether your business thrives or vanishes in the years to come.

The question is stark: do you have the courage to break free from the inertia of ‘how we’ve always done it’? Are you ready to challenge your own assumptions, disrupt your own organisation, and commit to a strategy that puts value not activity at its core?

Because the truth is: if you don’t disrupt yourself, the market will do it for you. And it won’t be forgiving.

The time for hesitation is over.

The leaders who act with clarity and conviction today will shape the future.

The rest will become footnotes in history.

Which will you be?