"We Still Use Spreadsheets." Understanding Business Decision-Makers' Perceptions and Barriers to AI Analytics
Muhammad Raees, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Konstantinos Papangelis · 2026
Although artificial intelligence (AI) systems are expected to support business decision-making, their adoption among non-technical professionals, for instance, in business contexts, remains limited. Prior HCI research in business contexts has mainly explored how technical users provide support to decision-makers, overlooking the challenges of actual business decision-makers themselves. In this work, we present an empirical study surveying 65 participants from business domains and interviewing 18 of them to evaluate their perceptions on analytics and/or AI usage. Our findings reveal that business decision-makers, such as sales professionals, do incorporate data analysis for informed decision-making, which they either delegate to analysts or perform by themselves. Most salespeople still rely on traditional tools, with minimal use of data-driven and AI-based analytics due to adoption barriers that range from skill gaps to an understanding of complex statistical models or tools. These findings inform the need for designing human-centered AI systems that better support business users’ decision-making.