At Evolvere, we foresee a transformative shift in how organisations manage and use data in 2025, with a focus on accessibility, real-time processing, ethical considerations, and advanced analytical capabilities. These trends are key enablers to reshaping our digital landscape, fostering innovation, and enabling businesses to maintain a competitive edge.
1. CDO / CDAO to Gain Prominence in the Executive Suite
Historically, Chief Data Officers (CDOs) and Chief Data and Analytics Officers (CDAOs) reported to CIOs, with limited access to broader executive discussions. In 2025, we believe this is set to change as these roles are becoming indispensable, acting as key enablers for realising the broader vision and objectives of the C-suite. As data increasingly drives strategic decision-making, CDOs and CDAOs will assume more prominent and influential roles.
2. Focus to Remain on Data Minimisation Efforts
Effective data minimisation has always been hard and remains hard; this is due to the prerequisites and the breath of the task. Before an organisation can systematically dispose of its obsolete data assets, it must have the following in place:
- A classification scheme tailored to all types of data held
- A retention schedule for these data types (positive and negative retention periods – ie data to be retained for a minimum period of x years after an event, but no longer than y years)
- An information asset register (IAR) summarising the organisation’s information holdings, and linking them to the appropriate classification & retention
In spite of these complexities, at Evolvere we believe data minimisation remains a key enabler of responsible data management and regulatory compliance (to Australia’s Privacy Act for instance) in 2025. Organisations will focus on collecting and retaining only the data that is strictly necessary for their specific business purposes, thereby reducing risks associated with overcollection and potential data breaches. In a more positive way, having a clear understanding of data holdings will also smoothen the execution of key operational processes and foster innovation through the ability to use emerging technologies relying on curated data sets.
3. AI to Augment Data Wrangling and Analytical Insights
As much as we are all tired of hearing that AI will change everything, AI’s role in data analytics may very well be evolving beyond hype. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2025, 90% of analytics content consumers will also be content creators, empowered by AI.
This democratisation of analytics will largely result from AI integration into platforms like Power BI and similar tools. However, at Evolvere, we see the real innovation lying in users integrating custom-trained AI models from environments such as Azure ML to apply predictive and classification insights directly to their data, enabling advanced, real-time decision-making.
4. Data Literacy Requirements to Rise for All Employees
As data becomes central to business operations, organisations will require employees at all levels to build a foundational understanding of core data management concepts. This surge in data literacy requirements reflects the growing need for every employee to effectively interpret and act on data-driven insights. Training and development programs will play a pivotal role in addressing this gap, ensuring that the workforce is equipped to operate (and even thrive?) in a data-centric environment.
5. Data Governance to Become A Key Enabler for Scaling (Digital) Businesses
Effective data governance is critical for scaling digital operations. It encompasses the processes and standards for ensuring data accuracy, security, and usability across the organisation. According to Gartner, 80% of businesses attempting to scale digitally will fail if they do not adopt modern data governance approaches. To succeed, we believe organisations will need to focus on agility, collaboration, and scalability, aligning governance practices with the dynamic demands of our ever-evolving data landscapes.
6. Efforts on Data Privacy and Ethics to Sustain
The amendment to Australia’s Privacy Act in late 2024 marks the start of a significant shift in our data privacy legislation. While mainly focused on OAIC’s (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) reach for now, some changes are directly impacting regulated organisations, including:
- Automated Decision-Making Disclosure: organisations must now disclose the use of automated decision-making systems that involve personal information.
- Increased Penalties: non-compliance with the Privacy Act will incur higher financial penalties.
- Cross-Border Data Transfers: new provisions aim to simplify the transfer of personal data to countries with privacy laws comparable to ours.
As further reforms are anticipated after the 2025 elections, we believe organisations will further prioritise data privacy and ethics to ensure compliance, and strengthen trust in the digital economy.
7. Data Fabrics to Deliver on Virtualisation Promises
The concept of data virtualisation has existed for decades, hoping to deliver seamless and efficient access to and integration of data across diverse sources and formats without the need for physical data movement or replication. Its operationalisation, though, has witnessed limited success, confining it to edge cases or POCs, rather than effective and result-bearing production deployments.
At Evolvere, we believe that advancements in technology are making data fabrics a practical and impactful solution for business-as-usual operations, with the potential to deliver on the data virtualisation promises. Data fabrics provide an integrated architecture that not only unifies access but can also automate data management, integration, and governance across diverse environments.
We expect data fabrics to play a role in supporting real-time decision-making, enhancing enterprise data quality, and reducing time spent on manual data integration tasks. By leveraging automation, AI, and metadata-driven insights, data fabrics will enable organisations to scale their digital transformation efforts, ensure compliance with governance and privacy requirements, and adapt quickly to changing business needs, all while maximising the value of their data assets.
8. Real-Time Data Processing to Support Digital Transformation
We see real-time data processing featuring highly in digital strategies in 2025. By enabling instantaneous insights, it empowers Execs in organisations to make agile, informed decisions and deliver responsive customer experiences. Real-time data has become essential across various industries, including finance for fraud detection, retail for dynamic pricing, and healthcare for patient monitoring.
Advancements in technology further support this trend:
- Edge computing, which processes data closer to its source, reduces latency and facilitates real-time actions,
- Data streaming platforms are emerging as robust frameworks for real-time data ingestion and processing,
- The integration of AI and machine learning enables predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and automation in real-time pipelines.
In addition to technological innovations, there is a broader cultural shift within organisations towards data-driven decision-making. Businesses are increasingly embedding real-time processes into their operations, leveraging up-to-the-second data to remain competitive. This transformation also responds to growing customers’ expectations for instantaneous responses and services, pushing companies to prioritise real-time capabilities as a cornerstone of their digital transformation strategies.
Conclusion
The data trends of 2025 highlight the growing importance of accessibility, governance, privacy, and advanced analytics. Organisations that adapt to these trends will be better positioned to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world. At Evolvere, we are committed to guiding businesses through this transformation, ensuring they harness the full potential of their data to achieve lasting success. Each of the trends in this article will lead to dedicated Data Dive posts in the coming weeks and months.
