• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 19, 2023

It’s one thing to use ChatGPT to write email messages and articles. But now it turns out that most business letters want automated help in making decisions, judging by The Decision Dilemma, a study released Wednesday by Oracle and author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.

The reason is that they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data pouring in at them. Indeed, 64% of individuals and 70% of business leaders are so stressed they prefer to have a robot make their decisions.

The study highlights “how the overwhelming amount of inputs a person gets in their average day — internet searches, news alerts, unsolicited comments from friends — frequently add up to more information than the brain is configured to handle,” says Stephens-Davidowitz, the author of Everybody Lies and Don’t Trust Your Gut. 

Of those polled, 86% say this barrage of data is complicating decision-making in their personal and professional lives. 

Moreover, 59% face a decision dilemma more than once every single day, and this inability to decide things is having a negative impact on the quality of life for 85%. Specifically, it is causing:

• Spikes in anxiety — 36%
• Missed opportunities — 33%
• Unnecessary spending — 29%

On the business side, 85% have also suffered from decision distress. Often, they feel guilty about or question a decision they made in the past year. And 93% believe having the right decision intelligence can make or break their company. 

That’s why 97% want more input from data to help them: 

• Make better decisions — 44% 
• Reduce risk — 41% 
• Make faster decisions — 39%
• Make more money — 37 %
• Plan for the unexpected — 29%

The message for email marketers is clear: You are competing for attention not only with rival brands, but with all the distractions posed by the internet and other sources. All the more reason to tighten up your messaging, subject lines — and targeting.  

It’s not clear how a robot would help in the decision-making process. The user would still have to figure out which data to input. And there would have to be a rigorous follow-up. 

But people want information, believing that without data, their decisions would be:

• Less accurate — 44%
• Less successful — 27%
• More prone to error — 39%

And the respondents believe that an organization that uses technology to make data-driven decisions is:

• More trustworthy — 79%
• Will be more successful — 79%)
• A company they are more likely to work for — 78%
• A firm they are more likely to partner with — 77%
• An organization they would invest in — 76%

“The hesitancy, distrust, and lack of understanding of data shown by this study indicates that many people and organizations need to rethink their approach to data and decision making,” concludes  T.K. Anand, executive vice president, Oracle Analytics. “What people really need is to be able to connect data to insight to decision to action.”

Oracle surveyed 14,000 employees and business leaders across 17 countries.