How can organizations make unstructured data ready for AI?
BARC Topical Survey "Harnessing Unstructured Data for AI Innovation: Problems, Practices, and Principles for Success"
Reading time: 22 minutes
Last edited: November 5, 2026
As AI moves into production, organizations face questions about the quality, security and governance of unstructured data. This BARC survey examines the practices that help data and AI teams make that data discoverable and usable, and what others can learn from AI Leaders.
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About the author(s)
VP of Research at BARC US
Kevin Petrie is the VP of Research at BARC, where he leads the data management practice and writes about topics such as AI, data integration and data governance. For 30 years Kevin has deciphered what technology means to practitioners, as an industry analyst, instructor, marketer, services leader, and tech journalist.
Kevin built a data analytics services team for EMC Pivotal in the Americas and EMEA, and ran field training at the data integration software provider Attunity (now part of Qlik). A frequent public speaker and co-author of two books about data management, Kevin most loves teaching data and AI leaders about evolving strategies, tools and techniques to capitalize on the value of data.
Senior Analyst Data & AI
With over 40 years in IT, Mr. Adrian has experience as a programmer, marketing and strategy director, IT market analyst, and research executive. As a BARC Fellow, his focus includes mapping the DBMS, Big Data, and NoSQL landscape. Previously, he managed all technology research at Forrester and served as a vendor lead at Gartner, roles that provided him with deep insights into software and cloud-based architectures, which he continues to leverage as a BARC Fellow.