New BARC research exposes the gap between what enterprises believe about their AI readiness and what their own answers reveal, just as agentic AI raises the cost of getting it wrong
ATLANTA and LONDON, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new research report from BARC, co-sponsored by Ohalo, finds that while four in five enterprises are confident they can extract value from their files, emails and documents for AI without compromising governance, fewer than one in three fully know where that data lives. As enterprises move AI from experimentation into production, and as autonomous agents begin acting on the data underneath, the gap between confidence and reality stops being theoretical.
The report, Harnessing Unstructured Data for AI Innovation, surveyed 225 enterprises across North America and Europe and is the first in BARC's four-report AI series to focus specifically on the unstructured data that powers AI and whether enterprises can govern it.
Co-sponsored by Ohalo, the enterprise file governance company, the report finds that confidence is outpacing capability. Enterprises believe they are ready for AI. Their own answers on where their data sits, what is in it, and how it is governed say otherwise. The result is a gap where exposure builds quietly and AI projects stall or get pulled after the work has already started.
Industry estimates put roughly 80% of enterprise data in unstructured form: the files, emails, images and documents that hold institutional knowledge, sensitive information, and the inputs AI projects depend on. The report shows most enterprises cannot account for it.
"Roughly two-thirds of AI adopters cannot effectively discover unstructured data, enforce governance policies on that data, or trace how they consume it," said Kevin Petrie, VP of Research, BARC US. "This hurts their ability to feed agentic AI the deep context it needs to take safe actions and generate business value."
This is what that looks like on the ground. It starts with the best of intentions. A team greenlights an AI project and points it at the file shares where the useful material lives, years of institutional knowledge, accumulating from research, clients, product launches. Then it stalls. They can't get past the metadata. No one can say with confidence what's in it, what's sensitive, or whether it's fit for purpose. So the work gets quietly handed to someone doing discovery by hand, the initiative slowly breaks down, and ROI questions start to be asked.
This is the normal case, not the exception. 70% of enterprises say less than half their data is even discoverable for AI.
"The governance holding all this together is human duct tape: 74% of enterprises still rely on manual effort or individual expertise. And only 29% fully know where their relevant data even resides. That's where AI initiatives stall, because when it comes to data, you can't govern what you can't find," said Kyle DuPont, CEO and Co-Founder, Ohalo.
The solutions the report points to
BARC's recommendations include auditing and cataloging data before it enters production and closing governance gaps at the file level rather than at the perimeter.
Ohalo's Data X-Ray platform addresses the visibility gap directly. It connects to existing enterprise infrastructure, opens every file (documents, PDFs, emails, contracts, scanned images and nested archives), classifies the contents, and feeds the results into the governance, security and AI tools already in place. It deploys on-premises, in the cloud, or in air-gapped environments without moving data.
Download the full report:
Harnessing Unstructured Data for AI Innovation
Media contact:
Carolyn Branco
Fractional CMO, Ohalo
media@ohalo.co
About Ohalo
Ohalo is an enterprise file governance company. Most enterprise information lives in files like documents, PDFs, emails, and contracts, yet the tools meant to govern them only read the labels, never the contents. Data X-Ray opens every file, reads what is inside, and classifies it, then feeds the results into your AI, compliance, and security systems. It all runs inside your own environment without moving data, whether on-prem, cloud, or air-gapped. Trusted by the Fortune 500, financial institutions, defense agencies, and critical infrastructure operators worldwide. www.ohalo.co
About BARC
BARC is a leading analyst firm for data & analytics and enterprise software with a reputation for unbiased and trusted advice. Our expert analysts deliver a wide range of research, events and advisory services for the data & analytics community. Our innovative research evaluates software and vendors rigorously and highlights market trends, delivering insights that enable our customers to innovate with data, analytics and AI. BARC's 25 years of experience with data strategy & culture, data architecture, organization and software selection help clients transform into truly data-driven organizations.
About the research
BARC's study is based on a quantitative online survey conducted in February and March 2026. After data cleansing, 225 qualified responses remained for analysis, all from leaders with direct responsibility for data, analytics or AI strategy, across a range of industries and company sizes in North America and Europe.
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