Hitachi Vantara: Why Most Organizations Still Don't Have The Data Foundations For AI
Interface, Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
Lee Nolan, GM UK&I at Hitachi Vantara, on why AI will not be defined by the sophistication of the models being deployed but the strength, consistency and reliability of the data that sits behind them
Spend five minutes in any boardroom and AI will come up. Strategies are being signed off, budgets are being released and pilots are already underway, giving the impression that momentum is building at pace. Yet beneath that surface is a more uncomfortable reality, one that is becoming harder to ignore as organisations move beyond experimentation and into delivery.
Most organisations are trying to build AI on foundations that were never designed for it. The ambition is clear and well-funded, but the underlying data infrastructure has not kept up. That gap between intent and readiness is now becoming visible, particularly as organisations look to scale beyond isolated use cases and deliver outcomes that are consistent and commercially meaningful.