Smart thinking: Why data is key to successful AI projects

Data repositories can help businesses organise their data and improve its quality. Standard Bank of South Africa raised the quality of its data from six per cent to 98 per cent using IBM DataOps software. It now has a data catalogue to help it meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Before working with IBM, the bank which operates in 20 countries in Africa and has reported assets of approximately US$157 billion in 2019 was investing tens of millions of dollars on data fixes in disparate places, says Simphiwe Phakathi, Executive Head: Relationship Banking PBB Africa Regions at Standard Bank Group & Dumisani Mthimkhulu, Head of Data Asset Management Platforms at Standard Bank Group. "We needed a disciplined data lifecycle approach that was sustainable."