GoKawiilZDNET’s key takeaways
A new study finds 62% of organizations are ill-prepared to tackle surging storage needs.
Organizations must lean in to AI’s growing data demands and infrastructure readiness.
“Sustainable scaling” may be the key to optimizing AI growth, according to Seagate’s study.
Artificial intelligence is forcing organizations to evaluate increases in data storage like never before, but less than 40% of businesses believe their infrastructure is equipped to handle the expansion, according to new research from Seagate Technology.
Seagate Technology’s 2026 Data Infrastructure Readiness Report found that 99% of IT leaders expect AI to increase their organization’s storage needs over the next three years. In fact, 32% anticipate their storage demand will grow by more than 50% as a result of AI.
Also: AI failed to properly patch software flaws 74% of the time, 1Password’s study warns
Despite this, only 38% of organizations say they are prepared to meet AI’s growing data demands. That’s less than four out of ten.
Seagate’s findings, published on September 14, are based on a survey of 2,712 enterprise technology decision-makers across the US, China, India, the UK, Germany, France, and Japan. Recon Analytics conducted the research on behalf of Seagate during May and June 2026. The survey aimed to examine respondents’ perspectives on their organizations’ AI readiness, infrastructure investment, storage architecture, infrastructure efficiency, sustainability, and long-term infrastructure planning.
The report’s data suggests a widening gap between the pace of enterprise AI adoption and the underlying data infrastructure (i.e., storage) needed to support it. In recent years, the AI conversation has stubbornly centered on computing power. Now, businesses and organizations across the globe are increasingly encountering challenges in how data sourced from AI is accessed, stored, retained, and commanded.
... continue reading