---
title: "BARC 2026 practice checklist: get your files AI-ready"
description: "Five practices from BARC's 2026 survey of 225 data leaders for finding, refining and tracing the unstructured files your AI uses. Get the free checklist."
url: "https://www.dataxray.io/research/barc-2026/checklist/"
language: "en-US"
---

1. [Home](https://www.dataxray.io/)
2. [Resources](https://www.dataxray.io/resources/)
3. [Research](https://www.dataxray.io/resources/?type=research)
4. BARC practice checklist 2026

BARC practice checklist · Free PDF

# Find it. Classify it. Get AI-ready.

5 practices by 225 data leaders on preparing unstructured files for AI.

## Get the free checklist, sent straight to your inbox

Why this checklist

## The analysts' definition of ready, not a vendor's

79% of data leaders are confident they can govern their files. Only 29% know where those files are.

Independent data and analytics research and advisory firm BARC turned that gap into a standard: the five practices that move your estate from baseline to ready, before your next agent reaches production.

> You cannot govern, secure or use what you cannot find. Discoverability is the starting point of every serious AI program.

Kevin Petrie, VP of Research, BARC US

This checklist is a free companion to Harnessing Unstructured Data for AI Innovation, BARC's 2026 research across 225 enterprise data leaders in North America and Europe. Co-produced by BARC and Ohalo. [Get the full report.](https://www.dataxray.io/research/barc-2026/)

Inside the checklist

## Why download

- **Know what's actually there**

  Discover the files your agents will use, including the shadow repositories every inventory misses.
- **Make them ready and safe**

  Refine files into trusted inputs, with access that's role-based and reviewable.
- **Prove what your AI used**

  Validate your golden sources and trace any output back to the file it came from.

Trusted by

- **U.S. Department of War**
- **Veolia**
- **Wood**
- **Costain**
- **Macnica**
- **Atlan**
- **Collibra**
- **Thales**
- **Virtru**
- **Microsoft Purview**
- **Experian**
- **Carahsoft**
- **Vertosoft**

## If you don't know where your files live, you don't know what your agents are learning from

Accuracy is now the number one measure of AI success. Get the five practices that protect it.

Get the checklist