• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 5, 2025

Don’t be surprised to see your marketing bosses and C-suite leaders pulling their hair out.

Today’s executives are overwhelmed by data, judging by Data, decisions, and doubt: a 2025 Leadership Perspective, a study from TheyDo, conducted by Sapio Research.  

Of those polled, 50% list data overload as a key challenge. And 77% admit they rely on dashboards and rarely question the data they receive, the study says.  

Moreover, 67% worry that over-reliance can cause them to miss critical opportunities, and that their decisions are based on false pretenses. 

The biggest hurdles? For 34%, it is lack of time to scrutinize data. And 24% feel they are too overwhelmed by data to analyze it effectively 

In addition, 26% decry the lack of context around the insights they are fed, while 55% are hobbled by gaps in data comprehension and usability. 

“These challenges are exacerbated by the fact that the dashboards leaders rely on are static, meaning insights quickly become outdated or irrelevant,” the study states. “This is reflected by 32% citing frequent updates and changes in metrics as a key contributor to their feelings of overwhelm, and 28% feeling data can be conflicting or contradictory.” 

In addition, while 28% have integrated AI into their processes, this may be adding to the data flood. 

American executives are most likely to use dashboards, with 53% saying they turn to them daily. 

Sapio Research surveyed 500 decision makers in the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands.