With organizations pursuing the most rapid access to data and flexible management approaches, there is now a rush to adopt and implement advanced technical solutions and capabilities to stay competitive. But many are already encountering challenges as a vast majority of AI and machine learning initiatives are failing to meet their expectations or provide solid gains on investments. In this talk, I will share insights about the lessons learned and the working approaches we have employed to navigate typical challenges the industry is facing. I will argue that we need to think outside of a technical box and further study the phenomena of data management and integration with a human-centric lens: from the business drivers' and users' point of view.