Veeam Software highlights the results of its latest data resilience study, conducted with more than 4,000 managers and senior IT managers. The findings highlight a crucial challenge: in an era where data and AI drive business success, organizations are more vulnerable than ever to data loss and operational disruptions.
Organizations can only fully realize the potential of AI when data is resilient, secure and well-governed; However, most boards and executives are not prepared to address the increasing risks to their data resulting from the use of AI.
The study highlights the creation of regular and reliable backups as the cornerstone of digital trust and data-based business continuity. Veeam’s report shows that management concerns about data outages now outweigh fears of an economic downturn, underscoring the importance of making data backup and recovery planning a top priority for all organizations.
Most significant threats to organizations
Ransomware and cyberattacks top the list of threats identified by business leaders, with 67% ranking them as the risks they fear most for the coming year, especially due to their direct impact on data. AI-related risks, including data breaches, algorithmic bias and runaway automation, come in second at 29%, indicating that emerging AI-driven threats are already significantly impacting data management in boardrooms. These three threats pose a high risk of data loss and service interruptions.
And while nearly half of organizations (47%) expect to experience a major data breach or cyberattack, only 32% believe it is very likely to fully recover critical data and business operations. As a result, 62% of leaders increasingly view data disruptions as a greater financial threat to their business than an economic downturn, making data resilience an urgent business priority.
“In today’s AI-driven world, trust in data is every organization’s most valuable asset. Backups are the last line of truth in an environment where AI can generate fake content, ransomware can encrypt data, and a single misconfiguration can spread across an entire infrastructure in a matter of minutes,” said Dave Russell, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Veeam.
“World Backup Day is a call for boards and IT leaders to ensure data resilience and implement comprehensive backup strategies. In the age of AI, it’s not just about recovering data, it’s about keeping business running and thriving with trusted data. Too many organizations still manage risk reactively, when true innovation and trust begins with a resilient and secure database.”
Data disruptions: the new big corporate risk
Trust in data is now the determining factor for the continuity and success of companies. As organizations become increasingly reliant on their data and AI systems, the risk associated with data disruptions has surpassed even that of the economic downturn:
76% of organizations say they would not survive more than three days of downtime if they suffered a complete data outage.
Nearly half (44%) of IT leaders are not confident that their organizations can recover all critical data within 24 hours following a cyberattack or data loss.
The consequences are significant: loss of customer trust, reputational damage, regulatory sanctions, regulatory non-compliance and, for many organizations, the threat of a complete business collapse. In the age of AI, data resilience is not just an IT issue, but a fundamental pillar of data-driven business trust.
AI Oversight and Accountability: The Missing Link in Trust
Despite the growing adoption of AI, boards and management teams are failing to adequately manage associated risks and data resilience. According to the Veeam study:
38% of boards or leadership teams surveyed have never formally addressed the types of attacks powered by AI, leaving organizations exposed and weakening the protection of their data.
Only 31% of boards review resilience readiness quarterly, including metrics related to data recovery and failover outcomes.
Less than half of organizations (49%) link executive KPIs to data resilience outcomes, and only 24% of leaders regularly participate in crisis drills for data loss or disruption.
Without clear accountability, organizations risk reacting to threats rather than adopting proactive, data protection-driven strategies.
Other key insights from the Veeam study
The human cost: the consequences of cyber incidents are not only technical; 57% of leaders say some employees quit, threatened to quit, or suffered burnout following serious data-related incidents, with loss of productivity being one of the main impacts.
Veeam report shows management concerns about data outages now outweigh fear of economic downturn
Top causes of data loss: External cyber attacks (26%) remain the most common cause of data loss, followed by human error (23%) and system or hardware failures (16%), all critical factors in data management.
Widespread outages: 83% of organizations experienced data outages that were not immediately resolved over the past five years, underscoring the urgent need for resilient and reliable data infrastructures. The consequences of neglecting data are serious: loss of trust, reputational damage, regulatory non-compliance, and even business collapse.
