IT and data teams were promised that AI would make work easier. Instead, it\u2019s created new layers of complexity. Today\u2019s digital workplaces are filled with disconnected systems, siloed data, and endless toggling between apps that don\u2019t talk to each other. The problem isn\u2019t the lack of innovation; it\u2019s who owns the data that fuels it.<\/p>\n
For IT leaders, the proliferation of SaaS tools has delivered flexibility at the expense of control. Every new application brings another data silo, another API to manage, and another compliance exposure. Legacy vendors have little incentive to change that. Their business models depend on keeping enterprise data locked inside proprietary systems.<\/p>\n
A recent example: Salesforce updated Slack\u2019s terms of service to prohibit organizations from using large language models (LLMs) to ingest Slack data. Bulk export of Slack data is now blocked, meaning you can\u2019t train internal AI systems on that data. Instead, you must use Salesforce\u2019s own real-time search within its ecosystem.<\/p>\n
These moves are not about security or privacy\u2014they\u2019re about control of the data layer, the true source of power in the age of AI.<\/p>\n
Every IT professional knows the cost of tool sprawl. A Harvard Business Review study found that knowledge workers toggle between applications about 1,200 times per day, losing nearly four hours of productivity each week. That\u2019s a 10% hit on every working day\u2014time that could be reclaimed through integration, automation, and unified data access.<\/p>\n
This \u201ctoggle tax\u201d represents a hidden cost of fragmented architecture. Legacy vendors profit from keeping teams tethered to their dashboards and screens. The interfaces aren\u2019t the moat; the trapped data is.<\/p>\n
Generative AI, co-pilots, and autonomous agents are accelerating the shift away from traditional user interfaces. Soon, your employees won\u2019t click through menus or dashboards to get work done\u2014they\u2019ll ask an AI agent to \u201cgenerate a quarterly report,\u201d \u201cidentify high-risk accounts,\u201d or \u201cdraft an incident summary.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that to work, those agents need real-time access to unified, trusted data from across the enterprise\u2014CRM, ERP, marketing automation, customer service, finance, and beyond.<\/p>\n
The future of IT isn\u2019t about managing another front end. It\u2019s about creating a secure, open, intelligent data layer that connects and governs the data fueling those systems. That\u2019s where the enterprise regains control.<\/p>\n
As conversational AI reduces the importance of traditional application interfaces, data infrastructure becomes the true competitive edge. IT leaders who establish data independence\u2014by unifying, governing, and securing enterprise data at the core\u2014will enable faster innovation and safer AI adoption.<\/p>\n
The organizations that win the AI race won\u2019t be the ones with the most dashboards; they\u2019ll be the ones with the most trusted and accessible data foundation.<\/p>\n
The post The Real AI Power Play: Who Controls Your Enterprise Data Layer?<\/a> appeared first on eWEEK<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IT and data teams were promised that AI would make work easier. Instead, it\u2019s created new layers of complexity. Today\u2019s digital workplaces are filled with disconnected systems, siloed data, and endless toggling between apps that don\u2019t talk to each other. The problem isn\u2019t the lack of innovation; it\u2019s who owns the data that fuels it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}