NetApp has released research that reveals UK technology companies are struggling to balance sustainability and AI ambitions due to their current approach to data management. While most UK IT leaders (92%) are aware of the negative environmental impact of single-use data and keen to reduce emissions from IT operations, business leaders estimate that AI projects will cause their data estates to grow by an average total of 41%.
► Over a quarter expect their data footprint to grow by more than 50% due to AI
► UK tech businesses don’t want to miss out on AI despite environmental impact
► 77.6% of IT leaders have already adapted data management processes for AI
Sustainability remains a top consideration and priority for companies, and 85% of IT leaders see data management as the key to cutting their carbon footprint, with reducing emissions cited as the top driver for addressing single-use data.
Most respondents have measures in place to manage single-use data, like regularly cleaning their data estates, but these may be falling short of their desired impact, as an estimated 38% of data remains unused. This is compounded by UK technology companies feeling they have too much data to sift through and find it more economical to expand rather than clean up their storage.
Similarly, a quarter (26%) of IT leaders struggle to identify what to keep, or which data will be useful in AI projects. This is likely to intensify as AI accelerates data expansion.
Tech businesses don’t want to miss out on the AI opportunity, despite even though collecting the data to fuel AI apps will likely increase the amount of single-use data they store. Three out of four IT leaders have already adapted their data management for AI and are readying for expansion, recognising that the success of this technology depends on having robust data infrastructure in place.
UK technology leaders anticipate a 41% average increase in their data footprint due to AI and 26.5% expect data growth to exceed 50%.
The research was conducted by Censuswide, with 1,000 decision-makers and data managers / architects or similar aged 25+ within the technology and digital services sector in January 2025.
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