In this AI and Data Trust CUBE Conversation, Larry Hunt, field chief data officer at Ataccama, joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay to unpack why trusted data, not just tools or talent, is the critical path to real AI adoption. Citing Ataccama’s Data Trust Report and his financial services background, Hunt highlights the gap between ambition and outcomes: while ~99% of firms are piloting AI, only ~3–4% are seeing results, with data trust as a primary blocker. He explains how governance succeeds when it’s “compliance by design,” tied to CEO/board-level KPIs, and focused on enabling business outcomes, rather than “selling governance.” He also notes where leadership buy-in and cross-functional alignment matter most, and why 46% of leaders call out data quality as a top priority. Hunt gets candid about today’s hybrid reality: legacy debt is worsening at large, federated institutions, making sustainability and scale the hardest challenges. He outlines how data products/domains can help de-risk modernization while balancing the CDO’s defensive mandate (regulatory compliance, risk) with offensive value creation (improving efficiency ratios). The takeaway: we may be in an AI hype cycle, but value will arrive faster than past waves – for organizations that ground their programs in trusted data and embed governance from the start.