Developing an effective data strategy is crucial for organisations to optimise their businesses, meet regulatory demands, deal with economic challenges, and benefit from AI technology. Experts agree that a strategic approach towards data is necessary to address major challenges such as climate change, security threats, and market disruption. A successful data strategy has six key elements: business alignment, access maturity, a data framework, governance, integrated solutions, and scalability. It requires collaboration between departments, well-defined success criteria, and a skilled and diverse data team. Moreover, organisations must consider the entire lifecycle of AI deployments and prepare their data strategy with regulatory compliance in mind to unlock the benefits of AI and achieve their business objectives.