Data analytics has enormous potential to revolutionize the customer support industry. Information once interpreted by human marketing personnel can now be parsed by artificial intelligence, uncovering trends and opportunities that would not have been possible before. While the technology roars ahead, there is one element that may be holding it back: a shortage of human workers to implement the data analytics solutions.

A recent study conducted by Forum Research found that IT decision makers and influencers across the U.S. and Canada overwhelmingly view data as an important part of their businesses (91.2 percent). At the same time, nearly 74 percent believe the data and analytics industry is facing a shortage of talent according to survey findings released by data and analytics solutions provider Adastra, which commissioned the study. Respondents working in the information technology vertical were even more convinced about the talent shortage with 79 percent in agreement.

“As data is increasingly embraced by existing and emerging industries, the demand on the labor pool is daunting,” said Rahim Hajee, Chief Technology Strategy Officer at Adastra North America. “It goes far beyond data scientists, especially for larger corporations who often depend on teams of programmers, data visualization experts, project-specific coordinators and many more.”

There is some indication that a lack of IT understanding is holding companies back from the top, where executives tend to be older. While nearly four in five (87.6 percent) IT decision makers agree that data utilization can distinguish an organization from the competition, almost 60 percent (59.8) of respondents admitted their executive teams are too old to understand the benefits of data and 65 percent agree their company is falling woefully behind their competition in utilizing data analytics. Respondents in the age group 18 to 24 years were even likelier to believe their companies are behind competitors in this category, with 70.5 percent agreeing.