Turning AI ambition into business action with real-time data and proactive agents

Fast Company

15-05-2025

Imagine a retail merchandiser sitting at breakfast when her phone buzzes with a proactive alert. Overnight, social media chatter around a celebrity's post has sent demand for neon sneakers soaring. Instead of scrambling through manual reports, her AI agent has already flagged the trend, forecasted inventory gaps, and drafted a recommended restocking order. She taps to approve it and alerts her team to staff up—all before finishing her coffee. It's a powerful vision—but one most businesses haven't reached yet.
'The big lofty promises of AI haven't turned into corporate results on the P&L,' says Mike Capone, CEO of Qlik, a company that provides AI, data integration, and analytics solutions to large organizations. 'What we're seeing now is a little bit of disillusionment. And the reason for that is there's a bunch of foundational work that needs to get done in order to achieve those results.'
Capone emphasizes that companies can't simply plug in a large language model and reap the benefits of AI. It must first establish systems that effectively collect, process, analyze, and store structured and unstructured data from multiple sources.
'The real foundation for AI is in multiple dimensions,' says Capone. 'Most importantly, data needs to be harnessed in real time. Old data is not useful in today's world. The veracity of that data is also crucial. If the data is not of sufficient quality and ready to feed into AI models, you're going to get bad outcomes.'
Recent research reflects the disconnect between business leaders' expectations around AI and the actual results they have seen to date.
A 2025 IDC survey sponsored by Qlik found that while '89% of organizations have revamped data strategies to embrace Generative AI, only 26% have deployed solutions at scale,' and '80% of organizations are investing in Agentic AI workflows, yet only 12% feel confident their infrastructure can support autonomous decision-making.'
In a 2025 American Express survey of small business leaders, 87% currently using AI said 'they are still learning how to use it effectively,' and 68% reported that 'they thought AI would have made a bigger impact on their business than it actually has.'
MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD
Today's leaders are managing significant challenges in a business landscape shaped by uncertainty, constant change, and rising costs. Qlik works with organizations to build a foundation of real-time, accurate data that can supply valuable AI analytics and have a positive impact on their bottom line.
'We have had more black swan events in the last 10 years than any time since World War II,' says Capone. 'Between COVID, the closure of the Suez Canal, natural disasters, the war in Ukraine, and the rising costs and tariff shock of the macroeconomic environment, things are changing every day. Minutes matter. The ability to ingest data in real time, make sense of it, and make decisions based on it is critical. And that's what we help our customers do.'
This week, Capone and his team announced the launch of two new products at Qlik Connect, an annual data, analytics, and AI event that gathers nearly 2,000 attendees from approximately 60 countries. Qlik Open Lakehouse is a tool that offers real-time, vendor-neutral data integration for faster query performance and lower infrastructure costs. A new agentic experience provides a conversational interface and specialized AI agents that surface insights, recommend actions, and help users make faster, more informed decisions.
Capone stresses that the company doesn't develop new products in a vacuum. He aims to spend between 30% and 40% of his time in any given week listening to customers on sales calls or direct interactions to understand their pain points, needs, and expectations. Customer feedback has a direct impact on the organization's product road map. Qlik also established an AI council composed of experts from public sector and higher education backgrounds.
'AI is complicated, and there is an ethical component to it that we are intentional about taking into account,' says Capone. 'We feel very strongly that technological advancement always outstrips society's ability to regulate it. Governments eventually try to catch up, but the reality is that the private sector owns some of this process. We're in a unique position to shape the ethical use of AI. The AI Council gives us another way to help us think about our technological decisions and how they play out—not just for our customers but for society in general. And more transparency is almost always the answer.'
STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS RESULTS
Capone urges business leaders to implement the following best practices to get the most out of their data and AI.
• Start with a business problem. 'All of our most successful customers start by identifying a real business problem they want to solve. They ask: What are key things I can do to improve my business, top line, and bottom line? How can AI apply to these situations? How can I build a strong foundation and a repeatable process around AI? Everyone talks about their vision for AI. We're talking about operationalizing AI and putting it into the workflow of your entire business.'
• Find an agile AI solution that can scale with your business needs. 'Sometimes in an effort to go super fast, people get myopic and think AI is a one-size-fits-all solution—but that's not the reality. We work with some of the largest, most innovative companies in the world that have saved millions of dollars with AI. But a lot of AI is becoming very local. You have to look at every dimension in your business and understand what flavor of AI makes sense for you.'
• Focus on action, not ambition. 'Everybody has AI ambition, but we're past that stage now. Ask yourself: How can AI really truly impact my business? What ROI am I looking to get? How can we achieve more certainty through data? Let's get real about how we can build durability and sustainability into these platforms.'