Seagate Technology‘s inaugural2026 Data Infrastructure Readiness Report finds that 99% of organisations expect AI to increase storage requirements, but only 38% say they are fully prepared.
Increasing requirements vs preparedness
The study also found that 98% of organisations say AI is transforming storage into strategic business infrastructure, while 86% report moderate or significant ROI from AI investments, including 33% reporting significant measurable returns.
Data quality and readiness (53%) and storage infrastructure (43%) emerged as the leading challenges to AI deployment, followed by availability (27%) and energy constraints (24%).
Meanwhile, 76% of organisations place data centre investment among their top three infrastructure priorities; 20% identify it as their highest infrastructure investment priority.
Because of sustainability or energy concerns, 77% of organisations have delayed or restructured AI infrastructure expansion.
The leading environmental concerns are AI-driven energy consumption (52%) and carbon emissions (51%).
“AI is reshaping the way organisations plan, build and operate infrastructure,” said Melyssa Banda, senior vice president of Edge Storage Business at Seagate Technology. “As data volumes grow, so does the value organisations can derive from the data. They need data infrastructure that helps them preserve, access and use more of that data over time. Sustainable Scaling is about making those infrastructure decisions more efficient, more durable and more connected to long-term data value.”
