For years, business leaders have repeated the mantra that data is the new oil. Investment has poured into analytics platforms, dashboards and AI tools, yet the hard truth remains that most organizations still struggle to turn data into timely, confident decisions. A NewVantage Partners survey highlights the paradox: 91 percent of companies are increasing their data spend, but only 26 percent consider themselves truly data driven.
This gap was the focus of the latest Martech Thursday webinar hosted by MartechAI.com, moderated by correspondent Anupama Mitra. The session brought together three voices with sharply different vantage points: Ronak Sheth, Chief Marketing Officer at 360 ONE; Dhaval Jain, brand and digital marketing consultant; and Sneha Banerjee, Independent Consultant in New Media Strategy and Partnerships.
The discussion began with Sheth laying bare the irony of abundance. “We live in an age where we have more information than ever before. Yet almost 70% to 80% plus organizations still struggle to make confident or timely decisions based on this data.” For him, the blockers are rarely technical. They come from silos, fragmented systems and an overreliance on automation. “The whole point is there is a reason why human intuition or gut feeling, as we call it, or the analytical skills that humans bring to the table is equally important. It’s not a tech problem in my mind. It’s a human problem. It’s a leadership problem. It’s a culture problem.”
Banerjee, who has spent years building campaigns in the media and impact sectors, pointed out the fragility of relying entirely on platform dashboards. “A lot of our dependency is on social media platform data, which in a lot of times we do not know if it’s accurate. In my experience, what I have tried and done is continuously test that data.” If a dashboard claimed that 40% of a campaign’s audience was women, she would run polls or gather feedback directly on Instagram or LinkedIn to verify. For her, data cannot be a once-in-a-while input but must be tracked and discussed routinely across teams.
Jain put the problem in sharp relief. “We live in a world drowning in data yet starving for decisions. The problem is not data or a lack of data. It’s a gap between information, interpretation and action.” He described how brands often stop at observations instead of deriving insights. “Sales are down—that’s an observation, not an insight. The insight is why consumers are not buying, and that must be backed up by data.” To illustrate, he pointed to health statistics in India: cancers cluster in certain states and among younger patients, which would immediately shape media spending and messaging for a new immunity-based product.
The conversation shifted to how organizations can embed interpretation into culture rather than treating data as a report card. Sheth explained how 360 ONE combines on-ground events, customer satisfaction surveys and NPS programs to listen at multiple points of the customer journey. The firm serves both mass affluent and ultra-high net worth investors, so insights must be mapped to varied personas. “If I know that 150 or 200 consumers of a specific category are behaving in a certain manner, I largely deduce that the cohort will have similar needs,” he said. Hiring follows the same mindset: people are chosen not just for skill but for curiosity, risk-taking and resilience. “Fail fast, fail quick, turn around, improvise and move forward.”
Jain, drawing from his experience with FMCG giants, argued that marketing is no longer a support act but the central function in today’s attention economy. “My sales guys are not going to bring attention to my consumer. The marketing folks are going to bring the attention. The marketing funnel has changed completely. The triangle has got inverted.” For him, the metric that matters are not just return on marketing investment but return on time invested. Banerjee added that even tiny signals in early campaign data should not be ignored. “Every engagement, every drop of engagement, needs to be considered and evaluated and observed carefully.”
On the role of AI, all three voices converged. Jain was direct: “AI can help you in spotting the pattern… But AI will never be able to answer you why. The why will come from human judgment.” Banerjee warned that content without human sensibility is hollow. Sheth described AI as a useful partner that analyzes and executes but cannot match human intuition. “AI is a great exchange of conversation, it can be a pairing partner, but whether the decision is beneficial in the context is only something a human can decide.”
For financial services, Sheth shared how 360 ONE manages risk by asking blunt questions up front about the size of investment a consumer is considering. It saves time, routes lead correctly and sets clear expectations. “We don’t commit any return. We will build a financial portfolio based on your risk appetite, financial goals, age and other factors.” Personalization, he added, means small but thoughtful gestures like sending a football enthusiast to a match—while performance remains central.
As the session drew to a close, Mitra asked the panelists to distil their advice for leaders wrestling with the data-to-decision gap. Sheth said the starting point must always be the problem statement: “If you don’t know what information you’re looking for, the data is gibberish.” Banerjee urged organizations to make analysis routine, not reactive. Jain cautioned against the very premise of being “data driven.” His call was for companies to be consumer driven, using data as a compass but never as the destination.
The conversation left no doubt: technology is abundant, but advantage comes from culture, clarity and speed. Companies that define the consumer problem, test what the platforms tell them, blend intuition with evidence and act quickly will move ahead. The rest will keep spending more while still struggling to decide.
