Building AI‑Ready Data: ODI and SAP Form Strategic Partnership

The Open Data Institute (ODI) and SAP have announced a partnership aimed at helping organisations prepare their data systems for increased use of artificial intelligence. The initiative brings together research, community engagement, and peer learning to support enterprises seeking to establish data foundations that enable trustworthy AI adoption.

Many organisations are accelerating AI initiatives, yet much enterprise data was originally created for human‑focused tasks, such as transactions and reporting, rather than for AI systems. Applying AI to data that lacks suitable structure or governance can lead to unreliable outputs and compliance concerns. The ODI–SAP partnership will involve industry, academic, and enterprise participants in developing open standards and practical frameworks to support AI‑ready data environments.

Key Areas of Work

The collaboration will focus on three main areas:

1. Independent programme governance
   ODI will design a governance model for the initiative, informed by its experience leading multi‑stakeholder programmes.

2. Research on preparing enterprise data for AI
   The research stream will provide guidance for CIOs and CDOs on aligning data systems with AI technologies, including machine learning, generative AI, and agentic AI, across modern data architectures.

3. Community building and standards development
   SAP customers, partners, policymakers, and academics will be engaged to exchange insights and contribute to shared standards for AI‑ready enterprise data.

Leadership Commentary

Louise Burke, ODI Chief Executive Officer, said:

“AI will define enterprise competitiveness for the next decade, but competitive advantage doesn’t come from AI models alone. It comes from the quality, governance, and autonomy of the data beneath them. Most organisations are sitting on data that simply isn’t ready for AI, and the consequences of getting this wrong, from biased outputs to regulatory non-compliance, are significant. Through this partnership, the ODI and SAP are bringing together the expertise, research, and community needed to give organisations the blueprint they need. Our goal is to make AI-ready data infrastructure accessible to enterprises of all shapes and sizes, built on open standards that no single vendor controls.”

Irfan Khan, SAP Chief Product Officer for Data & Analytics, commented:

“As companies scale AI in 2026, the real gap is data trust, not technology - organisations with governed, integrated data are far more likely to outperform and deliver measurable results. A critical next step for companies is to establish a business data fabric, which can ensure AI agents have the context they required to understand the business and impact.”