AI is accelerating faster than organisations can keep pace, putting data and AI leaders under intense pressure to lead amid complexity, ambiguity and demand.

This report captures candid insights from leaders navigating this uncharted territory, taken from DataIQ’s Guild Think Tank. It explores how leadership must evolve across three modes — Orientation, Scaling and North Star — highlighting that success depends on building trust, clarity and resilience while steering organisational change with a strategic and human-centred approach.

Key takeaways:

• Leadership modes — Orientation, Scaling and North Star — reflect how pressure, mandate and readiness shape different AI leadership approaches
• Effective AI leadership balances innovation with governance by building trust, co-creating value and embedding clear guardrails
• The evolving data leadership role requires leaders to act strategically, holding alignment amid ambiguity and preparing organisations culturally and structurally for continuous AI transformation