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According to the "2025 Data Migration Report" released by AI-powered company Caylent, more intelligent use of AI tools may be the key to achieving more successful data migrations. The report surveyed over 300 leaders from multiple industries, including education, financial services, leisure, healthcare, manufacturing, and utilities, revealing some concerning results.
The survey found that only 6% of respondents said their organizations were able to complete their most challenging migration projects on time, and only 6% of companies achieved zero downtime during the migration process. Respondents identified the most challenging migration projects as moving from on-premises to the cloud, database version upgrades, and cross-cloud migrations. Nearly half of the respondents (46%) experienced more than five hours of downtime during these complex migrations, leading to customer experience issues, revenue loss, and operational delays.
Additionally, respondents pointed out that the three most time-consuming tasks in these complex migrations included migrating data from the source database to the target database, testing the target database and all its integrations, and transforming the database architecture for the target platform. The survey results showed that although 77% of respondents believed AI was "effective or highly effective" in data migration, more expertise was still needed to successfully implement this technology.
Among all respondents, 60% used generative AI or data movement automation tools in their most difficult migration projects, but over half of the respondents (53%) lacked a clear understanding of which AI features and tools were best suited for their needs.
Lori Williams, CEO of Caylent, said: "The findings confirm what we see every day — modernization is urgent, but too many organizations are hindered by accumulated technical debt and outdated methods, resulting in unnecessary downtime and delayed returns." She further noted that Caylent combines generative AI with deep engineering expertise to lower the entry barrier for complex projects, accelerating time savings. This means faster migrations, reduced legacy costs, and a stronger foundation for growth in an ever-changing market.
Key Takeaways:
📊 Only 6% of companies can complete complex data migrations on time, and most migrations experienced long periods of downtime.
🛠️ The survey shows that although 77% believe AI is effective in data migration, more expertise is still needed to implement it.
🤖 Over half of the respondents lack a clear understanding of which AI tools and features are suitable for their needs.