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The 2026 Test Data Management Report for AI-Ready Enterprises
- Letter from the Authors
- Ranking Test Data Priorities: Why Data Quality Claims the #1 Spot
- The Data Control Paradox: Top Priorities vs. Biggest Barriers
- The Problem with Process: Test Data Bottlenecks Are Stalling Workflows
- Solving for Modern Test Data Management Challenges
- Key Takeaways: How You Can Make the Next Step Toward AI-Ready Test Data Management
- Respondents Snapshot: Segments, Industries, & Job Titles
- Key Terms to Know
Report > The 2026 Test Data Management Report for AI-Ready Enterprises
The Problem with Process: Test Data Bottlenecks Are Stalling Workflows
Manual Processes Are Holding Enterprises Back
Majority (98%) of enterprises still have some sort of manual aspect in their workflows — only 2% are fully automated. Manual processes are always going to create a bottleneck for you, even if most are automated. As a result, these enterprises are still going to experience delays. The truth is, you're only as fast as your slowest workflow. As agentic development continues to grow and become more prominent, workflow speed is only becoming more important.
This truth is proven even more true by how long enterprises and their teams take to fulfill requests for production data. 99% of respondents are waiting longer than 1 business day for a fresh full production copy of test data, with 42% waiting weeks or months. Only 1% of respondents are getting their data in a timely manner.
Waiting days, weeks, and months for data opens up concerns regarding your data’s quality and relevance for testing and development. This could be avoided by enabling self-service, on-demand test data for developers, testers, and AI agents.
AI-assisted and agentic development can generate code, tests, and prototypes faster than traditional test data processes can support. The result is a new bottleneck: Teams can move quickly in code, but they cannot validate quickly enough because realistic, compliant, synchronized, and scenario-specific data is not available on demand.
99% are waiting longer than 1 business day for a fresh full production copy of test data.
Is Your Test Data Holding You Back from Agentic Development?
Not all test data management approaches are created equal. In this Perforce Delphix webinar, experts TJay Belt and Wendy Mazur demonstrate how your strategy may fall short in modern software development lifecycles.
Enterprises Want More Copies Available to Them
When asked about the number of copies they typically maintain in non-production for each dataset, surveyed enterprises were majority split between 1 to 4 copies (43%) and 5 to 6 (50%). Out of those currently with 1 to 4 copies, 41% would prefer to have 5 to 6 as well — if there were no limitations.
AI-driven development increases demand for more environments, more testing, and more data. To keep up with these workflows, organizations want more copies of their data readily available. Data virtualization helps make this happen by providing fully readable/writeable copies that can be provisioned or torn down in just minutes.
How Does Data Virtualization Work?
Watch the video below to see how Delphix makes data virtualization easy.