Regulatory roadblocks are crashing GenAI progress, data leaders warn
Bureaucratic meddling risks running generative AI development off the road.
Almost 100% of British businesses have reported that excessive regulation is slowing down their adoption of GenAI.
The CDO Insights 2025 report from Informatica, an enterprise cloud data management provider, surveyed 600 data leaders from companies with revenues of more than $500 million to reveal a grim assessment of the state of AI adoption in the UK.
It found that 99% of large UK businesses earning more than half a billion dollars in revenue believe the regulatory environment has "held back their GenAI efforts".
This finding resonates with other large organisations around the world, with 92% of businesses in the US and APAC saying the same.
However, there is some good news. When it comes to implementation, UK organisations are ahead of their global peers, with 63% having already adopted GenAI in their business practices, compared to 51% in APAC and 48% in the US.
"UK businesses are leading the global charge on GenAI adoption, but they’re hitting regulatory and operational roadblocks that risk slowing progress," said Emilio Valdes, SVP EMEA & LATAM at Informatica.
“The pressure to demonstrate ROI, combined with concerns over data quality and regulatory delays, is creating a perfect storm for data leaders. Unless their data is ready for AI, they won’t be able to unlock GenAI’s full potential.
"To succeed, organisations must focus on strengthening their data foundations. Ensuring data is accurate, holistic, integrated, up-to-date and well-governed is a critical step in converting pilots to transformational projects, proving value and navigating compliance challenges.”
Other key findings of the study include:
- Over half of UK businesses (53%) believe that additional regulatory review requirements have caused delays in launching GenAI projects. This is far higher than US (27%) and APAC (31%) counterparts.
- Nearly a quarter (23%) of UK data leaders say that some projects have been stalled until they receive further clarity on legal posture and risk. This compares to 30% in the US and 31% in APAC.
- Despite leading in adoption globally, UK data leaders face challenges in scaling their GenAI projects. Only 38% of GenAI pilots in the UK have successfully transitioned into production, in line with other markets - 35% in the US and 42% in APAC.
- Key obstacles preventing the transition into full production for UK data leaders include technology limitations (43%), data quality, readiness and completeness (39%), a shortage of skills and lack of data literacy (38%) and uncertainty and changes in AI regulations (32%).
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