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Unlocking AI’s True Potential: Guy Holmes on Ending the Data Drought
As artificial intelligence reshapes the way we work, govern, and grow, organisations face an inconvenient truth: their most powerful data isn’t found in AI tools, cloud marketplaces, or public datasets—it’s buried deep within their own archives. In the final edition of IQ Magazine, Guy Holmes, CEO of Tape Ark, delivers a bold call to action in his article, The Data Drought: How Organisations Can Harness Internal Information to Fuel the Next Wave of AI.
Originally published in IQ Vol 41, Issue 1 (June 2025) and reproduced with permission from RIMPA Global, Holmes’ four-page feature unpacks the paradox at the heart of today’s AI revolution: vast amounts of untapped, internal data remain inaccessible—locked in legacy systems, outdated formats, or siloed storage—while organisations scramble to generate new content for machine learning and automation.
Why This Article Matters Now
AI is only as good as the data that feeds it. Yet despite decades of digital transformation, many organisations still don’t know what data they have, where it lives, or how to make it usable. Holmes refers to this as a “data drought”—a self-imposed scarcity in a time of abundance.
He challenges CIOs, records managers, data custodians and business leaders alike to shift focus from acquiring more AI tools to first understanding and mobilising the intelligence they already possess.
From the oil and gas sector to public records, Holmes draws on examples where legacy data—once considered redundant or obsolete—has been successfully recovered and repurposed to power strategic insights, fuel innovation, and even train AI models.
Three Takeaways from the Article
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Internal data is your competitive edge.
Organisations spend millions chasing external data while overlooking decades’ worth of operational history, customer behaviour, or scientific research within their own archives. -
Format is the new frontier.
Holmes stresses the importance of data liberation—migrating analog, proprietary, or obsolete formats into open, machine-readable formats that AI systems can learn from. -
Records professionals are key to the AI era.
Far from being custodians of the past, information and records managers hold the keys to unlocking value for the future. Holmes argues their role is central in surfacing, structuring and securing legacy data for reuse in AI systems.
Looking Ahead: From Drought to Data Renaissance
As the IQ Magazine era comes to a close, this final edition reminds us that true digital transformation isn’t about chasing the next shiny tool—it’s about rethinking how we value and use what we already have. Holmes’ vision is both pragmatic and provocative: AI’s next leap won’t come from scraping the internet; it will come from unearthing the intelligence already embedded in organisational memory.
Read the full article here Guy Holmes AI article RIMPA iQ
