A.I. was supposed to improve decision making. Instead, business leaders are so overwhelmed with data they’re struggling to function

Put aside Chat GPT, Bard, Wall-E and the other wizards of generative A.I. The original promise of artificial intelligence was that powerful algorithms and speedy computers would take vast amounts of data and spin them into useful intelligence. Business decision making would get better.

But the opposite may be happening. A giant study out this morning from the folks at Oracle, based on a survey of more than 14,000 business leaders, reveals some shocking statistics:

• 74% of those responding say the number of decisions that they have to make every day has increased more than 10X over the last three years.
• A similar proportion—78%—complain they are being bombarded with more data than ever before.
• 86% say the volume of data is making decisions in their personal and professional lives more complicated, not less.

The result: a rise in decision distress, decision delay, and even decision paralysis. A stunning 72% admitted there are times when the sheer volume of data, and lack of trust in that data, prevents them from making any decision at all.

“People are drowning in data,” says Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, data guru and author of a great little book called Don’t Trust Your Gut, who partnered with Oracle on the study. “They are tempted to throw out the confusing, and sometimes conflicting, data and just do what feels right.”

Oracle, of course, is hardly a disinterested observer of this phenomenon. The company is offering its own services as an antidote. But it’s still pretty stunning to learn that the promised revolution in business decision making seems to be heading in the wrong direction. And it’s a good illustration of the “mismatch” identified by Google CEO Sundar Pichai (and cited in yesterday’s column) between “the pace at which we can think and adapt as societal institutions, compared to the pace at which the technology is evolving.”

More news below.

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

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This edition of CEO Daily was edited by Jackson Fordyce.