From Data Strategy to Business Value Roundtable

As investment in Data & AI continues to grow, many organisations are still grappling with a core challenge: turning strategy into tangible business value.

Last week, we brought together a small group of senior Data & AI leaders in Manchester for a closed, discussion-led roundtable focused on how teams are actually navigating that gap in practice.

Across the room, one theme came through clearly:
most teams aren’t struggling to build capability, they’re struggling to prove it’s working.

The conversation centred on:

• How data strategies are translating into real business impact and where they’re falling short
• What “good” looks like when it comes to measuring ROI on Data & AI (and why it’s rarely straightforward)
• When to push forward, pivot, or stop a data initiative and how to still extract value

A few key themes from the discussion:

• ROI remains the biggest challenge
  Leaders are still being asked for clear, commercial outcomes, but real-world variables (seasonality, market changes, imperfect testing) make this difficult to isolate
• The best teams define success upfront
  Metrics, data sources, and expectations are aligned before projects begin, rather than trying to prove value retrospectively
• Platform investment needs a tangible story
  Foundational work is hard to justify in isolation. The most effective approach is tying it to something visible, whether that’s speed to market, AI use cases, or revenue impact
• AI isn’t the blocker anymore, data foundations are
  Access to tools is no longer the issue. Fragmented systems, lack of metadata, and poor data structure are what hold teams back
• Evaluation is still underdeveloped
  Many teams aren’t prioritising it until late, but it’s quickly becoming a critical capability as AI moves closer to production

We curated a strong mix of leaders from tech-driven businesses including Specsavers, Microsoft, Daemon, Datalex, and others, bringing a range of perspectives from scaling teams to enterprise environments.

The session was moderated by Dan Tibble (Data & AI Senior Leader @ Specsavers) and kept intentionally small to allow for open, honest conversation rather than a typical panel or presentation format.

If these are challenges you’re currently working through, and you’d like to be part of future sessions or hear more about our leadership events, register your interest below or get in touch with the team or contact Dan Billington for more info.