AI Agents are Here, But Your Data Still Isn’t Ready

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges organizations face with data readiness as AI adoption accelerates.

AI has officially moved beyond experiments and into real-world production — making decisions, taking actions, and reshaping how businesses operate. But there’s a problem. Even as adoption accelerates, most organizations still haven’t fixed the one thing AI depends on: their data. In this episode of Today in Tech, Keith Shaw speaks with Gaurav Pathak, Senior Vice President of Product Management for Metadata and AI at Salesforce, about the growing “trust paradox” — where employees increasingly trust AI outputs, while leaders know their data foundations aren’t ready. They break down: Why AI adoption jumped from 48% to 69% in just one year How agentic AI is spreading faster than any enterprise tech before it Why data quality is still the #1 blocker to real AI deployment The risks of “shadow AI” inside organizations What leaders must fix now before AI mistakes hit customers and revenue As AI systems become more persuasive — and more autonomous — the cost of bad data is no longer theoretical.

People in this episode

Host: Keith Shaw

Guest: Gaurav Pathak

Topics covered

• AI adoption
• data quality
• trust paradox
• enterprise technology
• shadow AI
• AI deployment

Keywords

• AI
• data
• trust
• adoption
• enterprise
• quality
• deployment
• shadow AI

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Salesforce

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