The market wants Trust first. And Zoho delivers it.

Every year, the BARC Data, BI & Analytics Trend Monitor surveys hundreds of BI professionals to identify the most pressing priorities shaping enterprise data strategy. The 2026 results drawn from 1,579 respondents across users, consultants, and software vendors was published in January.

What the BARC 2026 Rankings Really Tell Us 

For the fifth consecutive year, Data Quality Management and Data Security & Privacy share the top positions, both scoring 7.9 out of 10 in importance. Behind them, Data-Driven Culture (7.3), Data & AI Governance (6.9), and Data & AI Literacy (6.5) round out the top five.

Meanwhile, topics like Generative AI for Analytics and Agentic AI (which Zoho Analytics provides) rank 13th and 19th respectively. The data makes a clear statement: organizations want to address the trust layer first, before moving to scale their AI operations.

"Trustworthy, well-governed data remains the foundation for all further innovation." 

-- BARC Trend Monitor 2026 

AI-powered analytics is only as good as the data it runs on. You can deploy the most sophisticated ML models in the world, but if your underlying data is incomplete, ungoverned, or unsecured, the outputs can be useless and misleading. This is why smart enterprises are investing heavily in the fundamentals right now. And it's also why Zoho Analytics and Zoho DataPrep were built with these exact priorities at their core. 

How Zoho Analytics & Zoho DataPrep Address the Top 3 BARC Priorities 

Priority #1: Data Quality Management 

Zoho DataPrep (which is also integrated within Zoho Analytics) is purpose-built for exactly this challenge. It enables business users and analysts to profile, cleanse, transform, and enrich data before it ever reaches a dashboard. With outlier detection, duplicate identification, and schema validation, data teams can establish and enforce quality standards at scale, reducing the garbage-in-garbage-out problem that plagues most analytics initiatives. 

Priority #2: Data Security & Privacy 

Zoho Analytics is built with enterprise-grade security that goes well beyond checkbox compliance. The platform is HIPAA-compliant, supporting healthcare and life sciences organizations with the rigorous data handling practices required by U.S. federal law. It is also GDPR-ready, providing the data residency controls, data subject request workflows, and audit trails that European regulations demand. 

Priority #4: Data & AI Governance 

Governance isn't just about who can see what. It's about creating a trustworthy, auditable chain of custody for data across the organization. Zoho Analytics provides role-based access control (RBAC) with granular permissions at the workspace, report, and row level. Combined with full audit logging and centralized admin controls, it gives data teams the oversight infrastructure they need to govern both human and AI-driven access to sensitive information.

The Bottom Line for Data Leaders 

The BARC 2026 data is a mandate. Before you budget for another AI proof-of-concept, ask whether your data quality, security, and governance foundations are strong enough to support it. The best-in-class organizations surveyed by BARC are already doing this, and they're pulling ahead. 

Zoho Analytics and Zoho DataPrep give mid-market and enterprise teams a unified, compliance-ready analytics platform that doesn't force a tradeoff between capability and trust. You get the AI-powered insights your business demands, built on the governance and quality framework the market is telling you it needs. 

Ready to build your analytics foundation, and see how Zoho Analytics handles HIPAA, GDPR, and enterprise governance? Start your free trial, or book your personalized demo.