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.
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“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challenges are exacerbated by the fact that the dashboards leaders rely on are static, meaning insights quickly become outdated or irrelevant,” the study states.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.