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Lucent Search research | AI & Data Leadership Report 2025–2026
AI & Data Leadership Report 2025–2026
How leaders are turning AI strategy into business value
What does it take to deliver on an AI strategy? The experiences of AI and data leaders reveal challenges across talent, investment, governance and the organisational conditions that support delivery.
Lucent’s research examines these pressures and their implications for the people accountable for business performance. It explores how leaders build their teams, secure support, demonstrate value and move AI into operational use.
For boards and leadership teams, the findings raise practical questions about where responsibility sits, what capability is needed and whether leaders have the authority and resources to deliver what is expected.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
What this means for the leadership team
The research brings three connected issues into focus: the conditions for delivery, the continuity of leadership and the ability to demonstrate business value.
Delivery requires ownership across the business
Respondents report substantial difficulty with cross-departmental collaboration, integration and scaling AI. These challenges require decisions across technology, data, operations, finance and risk.
Leadership teams need to establish who owns the business outcome, who can resolve competing priorities and how decisions will be made across functions. An AI leader’s remit needs to be supported by the authority and cooperation required to fulfil it.
Leadership continuity deserves attention
A substantial proportion of respondents planned to change roles within a year of taking the survey. That signals potential disruption for organisations relying on these leaders to build capability and sustain delivery.
The findings make retention and succession relevant to the wider business strategy. They also prompt a closer examination of the role itself: its scope, sponsorship, resources and opportunities for the leader to make a meaningful contribution.
Investment needs a credible route to value
Respondents describe difficulty securing budgets, measuring returns and scaling AI solutions. Together, these findings raise questions about how organisations connect initial investment to sustained delivery.
Leadership teams need a shared understanding of what success looks like, how progress will be measured and what it will take to put a solution into use. Funding decisions should account for integration, adoption and ongoing operation, alongside development.
AT A GLANCE
The findings at a glance
The survey captures the experiences of AI and data leaders across leadership continuity, organisational collaboration, investment and delivery.
Career intentions raise questions about succession and continuity for organisations relying on these leaders to deliver long-term change.
Explore leadership retention and succession →
87% found cross-departmental collaboration challenging
AI delivery depends on cooperation across functions. The findings prompt a closer look at shared priorities, ownership and decision-making.
Explore ownership, accountability and sponsorship →
71% found securing budgets for AI initiatives challenging
Funding is a significant concern for respondents, making the connection between business priorities, investment and delivery particularly important.
Explore AI investment and business value →
85% found measuring return on investment challenging
Understanding what AI contributes requires clarity about the outcomes expected and how those outcomes will be measured.
Explore the challenge of demonstrating value →
91% found scaling AI solutions challenging
Moving from a working prototype to operational use places demands on infrastructure, integration, people and ownership.
Explore scaling from pilot to production →
88% found AI governance challenging
Establishing oversight requires clear responsibilities and processes that work across business, technical and risk functions.
Explore governance and leadership accountability →
“Challenging” combines respondents who selected “moderately challenging” or “very challenging”. Percentages are rounded. Career intentions reflect plans at the time of the survey, rather than confirmed subsequent moves.
EXPLORE THE REPORT
Explore the findings that matter to your organisation
Each topic brings together the relevant findings, their business implications and questions for the leadership team.
AI leadership retention and succession
Explore leaders’ career intentions, motivations and tenure, and the questions these raise about continuity, support and succession.
Structuring AI and data teams for delivery
Examine team size, geographic distribution and capability mix, with implications for how teams connect to the wider organisation.
Hiring and retaining AI and data talent
Understand the challenges respondents face in attracting and keeping talent, alongside the role of development, progression and working conditions.
The skills AI and data teams need to deliver
Explore demand for technical expertise, strategic thinking, communication and organisational skills, and what this means for hiring and development.
AI and data leadership compensation
Examine reported base salaries and bonuses across geography, sector, experience and role scope, with context on the sample and the period covered.
AI ownership, accountability and executive sponsorship
Explore the challenges of cross-functional collaboration and executive support, and their implications for responsibility and decision-making.
AI investment and return on investment
Examine the difficulty of securing funding and demonstrating value, with questions about how investment decisions support sustained delivery.
Scaling AI from pilot to production
Explore the integration and scaling challenges respondents describe, and what leadership teams need to consider when moving AI into operational use.
AI governance and leadership accountability
Examine the challenges of establishing governance, addressing ethical considerations and keeping pace with regulatory change.
CONSIDERATIONS
What should you examine before making a leadership appointment?
When AI or data investment is falling short of expectations, defining the leadership requirement takes careful diagnosis.
The organisation may need additional capability, a different combination of experience or clearer responsibility within the existing team. Delivery may also depend on changes to decision rights, sponsorship, resources or the way functions work togetaher.
The research provides a useful starting point for four questions.
What business outcomes must this leader deliver?
Define what needs to change in the business and over what period. Those outcomes should shape the role’s priorities, scope and assessment criteria.
Which decisions will they own?
Establish what the leader can decide, where agreement is required and how competing priorities will be resolved. Accountability needs to be matched by sufficient authority.
What capability exists, and what is missing?
Examine the leadership team and the wider function. Identify where the organisation needs stronger technical expertise, commercial judgement, operational experience or the ability to lead change.
What conditions must be in place for them to succeed?
Consider executive sponsorship, funding, access to data, team capacity and cooperation across functions. Be explicit about what the organisation must provide and what the incoming leader will be expected to build.
These questions inform Lucent’s Leadership Requirement Diagnostic. We work with stakeholders to define the outcomes, capability and conditions for success before beginning a search. That process may confirm the proposed role, reshape it or identify changes needed within the existing organisation.
ABOUT
About this research
The AI & Data Leadership Survey examines the experiences of leaders working across AI and data functions. Respondents include executives, heads of function and other senior leaders across different sectors, company sizes and geographies.
The research covers careers, team structures, hiring and retention, organisational barriers, investment, technology, governance, skills and compensation.
The findings describe the experiences and views of the participating leaders. They should be read in the context of the respondent profile and the period in which the research was conducted.
Throughout these pages, we distinguish survey findings from Rebecca Hastings’ interpretation and recommendations. Where follow-up interviews inform the discussion, their contribution is identified separately.
The compensation analysis relates to early 2025 and uses the currency conversions stated in the report. It provides historical context for the sample surveyed.
HIRING IMPLICATIONS
Read the report in full
How leaders are turning AI strategy into business value
A concise overview of the principal findings and their implications for leadership, organisational capability and delivery.
The New Business Blueprint: AI From Hype to Execution
The extended report includes survey charts, topic-by-topic analysis, leadership checklists and compensation findings.
REBECCA HASTINGS
Research and interpretation by Rebecca Hastings
Rebecca Hastings is the founder of Lucent Search, a retained executive search firm specialising in senior AI, data and technology leadership.
She brings 15 years of executive search experience and a track record of more than 100 senior leadership appointments. Alongside search, Rebecca advises leadership teams on AI strategy and execution.
Her work examines the connection between business priorities, organisational conditions and the leadership capability required to deliver. That perspective informs both this research and how she helps clients define and make senior appointments.
CONNECT
Working through an AI or data leadership decision?
You may be deciding where responsibility should sit, whether your existing leadership has the capability required, or what a new appointment needs to achieve.
Lucent helps clarify the business outcomes, the leadership requirement and the conditions for success. Where an appointment is needed, Rebecca leads the search personally.
Tell Rebecca what is happening in your organisation. She will give you a candid view of whether Lucent can help.
Lucent Search · AI & Data Leadership Report 2025–2026