Why data freedom is now a non-negotiable right for every business

Some enterprise system vendors are trying to restrict how companies can use their own data – and we’re talking about significant systems of record.

If you run a business and this is news to you, I’d go check your contractual data access rights with each of your main tech vendors. Because if you aren’t in control of your data, you aren’t in control of your processes, your business strategy or the success of your AI initiatives.

We’ve been here before, haven’t we? Vendors limiting access to tech ecosystems isn’t a new phenomenon. But today’s situation feels like a knee-jerk reaction to a tech paradigm shift similar to when the music industry was upended in the early 2000s. This transition was loud, messy and litigious, but it birthed a whole new industry. Customers wanted to access and share music differently, paving the way for the streaming services used by hundreds of millions today.

This time around, it’s not about entertainment, but businesses surviving and thriving in the era of enterprise AI – where AI is applied to business challenges in an organization. When infused into business operations, enterprise AI can transform a business and drive impact at scale. But to reach this potential, to deliver a return on investment (ROI - or RoAI as we say), AI needs to understand the context of how a business runs. Context for how a decision in finance impacts an outcome in your supply chain. Context for how change in a process affects the entire business. Context that comes from process data.

Out-of-the box systems are often isolated from one another. But siloes limit value contribution. When systems are integrated into (and play nicely with) the wider tech stack, they create exponentially more value. A marketing automation tool that generates leads is far more powerful when linked to other systems of record like CRM platforms and sales databases: automatically routing qualified prospects to sales teams and updating customer records in real-time.

The same is true of data. Sure, you can analyze data that’s locked in a marketing system. But if you really want to understand marketing ROI or track customer engagement from awareness to advocacy, you need to combine it with the data from your sales automation tools, order management systems, contract system and so on. And, of course the same applies to every business function.

The modern enterprise is driven by an overlapping, interacting and interdependent ecosystem of data and systems. Hundreds of systems and apps processing terabytes of data. The more tech solutions in use, the more vital to have an unfettered data flow between them. And the more integration, the less unleveraged data is left gathering dust. Technology has evolved this way to maximize efficiency and understanding.

It works, and no-one should be trying to bring back siloes – particularly not now. These data freedoms were important prior to AI’s broad availability in business. With the rise of AI and changing geopolitics, they’re a must-have. Organizations need the “digital sovereignty” to use their data to create the intelligence that will power the AI use cases their businesses need.

To mangle a famous piece of wisdom, it feels like we’re deep into the “those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes” territory. Innovation, or rather innovators, won’t be suppressed. Companies don’t just shrug their shoulders if they’re being held back by suppliers. Vendors who stand in the way of their customers’ success won’t remain their vendors for long.

The idea that you can’t freely use your own data in one system because it’s created or held in another system just doesn’t stand up. It’s the equivalent of writing an article using your favourite word processor, hitting Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to paste it elsewhere, and getting a message from the software company saying “You can’t take that information out of our software without an export tariff – the words are yours, but you used our platform to create that document.”

The operational and monetary burden from limited data access or financially penalized access to data is already too heavy, and it’s going to get a lot worse. As agentic AI gets more prevalent, with agents talking to agents to optimize every function, system-to-system data usage will dramatically increase. If vendors seek to charge companies for each extra incremental use of their own data in this agentic era, costs will skyrocket.

There’s going to be a backlash from customers.

Businesses will seek alternatives to vendors that keep their data captive. And this will open up (is opening up) an opportunity for new, different or challenger players to get a foothold in these markets. These vendors are serving up a ready-made value proposition for rival tech suppliers, suppliers whose services embrace open data ecosystems. It’s such a gift they might as well have tied a ribbon around it.

If I were a CIO right now, I would ensure my procurement team knew that a contractual obligation for open data access was a prerequisite for any new technology purchase. I would actively explore open data alternatives to restrictive systems. And I would make sure tech contract renewals were contingent on open data stipulations.

Over time, more and more companies are likely to migrate towards vendors offering open data platforms. It will be interesting to see how soon this becomes the standard AI-era arrangement. Because it has to. Businesses aren’t going to be able to survive without the unfettered ability to deploy their data to deliver competitive advantage.

The multi-billion dollar question is: how will the suppliers that are currently building moats around their customers’ data react? It will be a watershed moment. Either they’ll see the light, working constructively and openly with customers to deploy their data to seize every opportunity AI creates. Or they’ll entrench their position, leverage customer dependence on their services, and continue to paint data restrictions as the benevolent acts of parents who know better.

The latter just feels unsustainable in the current era of AI and shifting global alliances. People, businesses, innovators push back against restrictions. Ultimately, businesses will use their own data as they see fit, and they’ll choose tech partners who respect these freedoms. Digital sovereignty means having agency over your data, your systems and your digital future – which makes open data ecosystems every bit as important to success for vendors as it is for their customers.