80% of Indian professionals experience data anxiety: Canva

Although 97% of Indian professionals work with data every week, nearly 80% of them experience data anxiety. This anxiety is so severe that almost 45% of professionals go to the extent of avoiding any data-related work, according to a Canva study.

In its ‘Beyond the numbers: How data storytelling redefines communication’ report, the company uncovered a paradoxical phenomenon. It highlights a gap between confidence and competence amongst most professionals.

While 96% of Indian respondents claim to be confident about working with data, only 66% feel confident when starting a data-heavy task. Despite their claimed confidence, many Indian professionals struggle with basic data skills, leading to anxiety and costly errors.

Canva's study is based on responses from more than 2,400 marketing and sales professionals from North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The global visual design platform provider commissioned Pure Spectrum to survey 2,457 marketing and sales professionals worldwide. The sample included 305 respondents in the United States, 313 in India, 305 in the United Kingdom, 308 in Australia, 307 in France, 301 in Germany, 309 in Spain, and 309 in Japan.

Similarly, while 92% of professionals feel confident analysing and interpreting data, as high as 74% admit to making spreadsheet errors, potentially affecting their work. The typical challenges they face include difficulty with formulae (42%), interpreting complex spreadsheets (41%), and performing analysis (46%).

Despite 81% of organisations offering regular data literacy training, data anxiety persists among 80% of respondents. As a result, as mentioned above, a little less than half of the respondents mentioned they actively avoided data work altogether despite recognising its value.

This avoidance, according to the report, can significantly impact business outcomes, especially for marketing and sales teams who need data to shape narratives that resonate with internal stakeholders, existing customers, and potential buyers.

Duncan Clark, head of EMEA at Canva, and co-founder of Flourish, a Canva company, said, “Working with data shouldn't be confined to specialists. When you give teams the right tools and training to turn numbers into narratives, you can unlock so much potential in an organisation. The goal isn't to make everyone a data scientist, but to empower teams to confidently make sense of the data at their disposal and turn it into compelling, engaging stories.”

The study findings point to similar trends globally. Data has emerged more integral to decision-making than ever before across the globe. 91% of survey respondents said their organisations had become more reliant on data in the past two years.

Nearly 95% are expected to be data literate in their roles, and 97% report working with data or spreadsheets every week. However, in spite of this increasing dependence on data, the conventional data tooling approaches seem to be falling short.

96% of professionals feel more confident presenting when using data visualisations and believe such visuals help enhance their credibility, and 44% continue to struggle to produce effective data visualisations. With organisations churning out huge volumes of data daily, the ability to turn numbers into compelling storytelling has emerged as a crucial capability in today's business.

Canva's report spots tool complexity as a key friction point that explains data anxiety among professionals. About 58% of respondents said they found it difficult to switch between various tools.

However, a large number of people interviewed showed a willingness to change. 96% of professionals are likely to adopt easier-to-use data visualisation tools, and 49% are ready to spend up to three hours to learn using new tools.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also seen as another important enabler in this transition. Nearly 91% of respondents worldwide felt AI could enhance their ability to work with data by automating mundane jobs and recommending effective visualisations. However, professionals continue to voice concerns about AI regarding trust, accuracy, and its impact on creativity.

The report notes that recognising the significance of data-to-story imperatives, forward-looking businesses have already started investing in tools that are tailor-made for visual data work and prioritising data literacy across teams. Marketing and sales professionals, the report observes, have only begun to tap into data's full organisational potential as of today.