PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has published a survey, titled “Guts & Gigabytes,” on business managers’ decision-making processes. The Economist Intelligence Unit interviewed more than 1,100 executives worldwide about the factors they take into account to make business decisions. Forty-one percent said they rely primarily on their own intuition and experience, 31 percent on the experiences of others and 23 percent on data and analytics.

Despite the reliance on business instincts, 40 percent admit that data analytics have changed the way they make decisions more than any other factor. The survey’s organizers stressed that this trend is certain to continue in the future as business intelligence analytics become increasingly important.

“Business leaders have long used their own tried and trusted intuition alongside more scientific and financial factors to make decisions and this has served them well in the past,” said PwC consulting data analytics partner Yann Bonduelle. “As data become more pervasive, algorithms become more accurate and visualization more intuitive, business leaders are realizing they can make better decisions through using data and analytics more systematically.”

Additionally, 81 percent of respondents recognize that a good grasp of data-driven decision-making is already a prerequisite for junior executives to achieve promotion to larger management roles. “In the digital age, as business becomes ever more complex and data becomes ever more available, business leaders need to ensure they know how to quickly make decisions based on their analysis of data,” said PwC’s head of data analytics, Tom Lewis.

Data analysis tools can help businesses get a head start on this growing trend. It is essential for companies to draw the right conclusions from the information they have available, in order to make savvy business decisions and ensure their continued growth.