Seagate Survey Finds 99% of Tech Leaders Expect AI Storage Needs to Grow Within Three Years

Enterprise artificial intelligence adoption is elevating the strategic value of stored data while exposing infrastructure deficits across corporate data centers, according to survey research from storage hardware maker Seagate reported by TechRadar Pro (https://www.techradar.com/pro/seagate-finds-ai-is-increasing-the-value-of-data-but-warns-that-43-of-businesses-lack-proper-data-storage-infrastructure-99-expect-ai-storage-and-storage-costs-to-explode).

The study, which polled more than 2,700 technology decision-makers, found that 99% of respondents expect AI workloads to expand their storage requirements over the next three years. However, only 38% described their organizations as completely prepared for the growth, and 43% identified storage infrastructure as a primary obstacle to broader AI deployments.

The demand is driven largely by initial returns on artificial intelligence initiatives. According to the data, 86% of organizations reported moderate or significant returns on their AI investments, with 33% recording substantial measurable financial or operational benefits. These returns incentivize enterprises to retain historical datasets, training materials, model checkpoints, and generated outputs to support future model iterations.

Nearly seven in ten respondents expect storage capacity requirements to rise by at least 26%, with 32% projecting increases exceeding 50%. In addition, 53% cited data quality and readiness as a major deployment challenge. Storage bottlenecks ranked ahead of compute availability (cited by 27%) and energy constraints (cited by 24%) among barriers to AI implementation.

Infrastructure expansion plans are also encountering environmental constraints. The survey found that 77% of organizations have modified or delayed expansion plans due to sustainability considerations, with 36% reporting major changes to investment plans and 41% experiencing smaller postponements. Power consumption was the primary environmental concern, cited by 62% of respondents, followed by equipment lifespan at 55%.

While only 39% of respondents currently rate their storage operations as highly sustainable, 61% expect to reach that level within five years. Financial resources heavily skew those expectations: 70% of organizations with annual sustainability budgets exceeding $100 million anticipate achieving highly sustainable operations in five years, compared with 48% of organizations with sustainability budgets below $1 million.