Inform, guide, educate, and lobby relentlessly. Find allies and champions in the structures that are generating the data. Find a way to recruit them, onboard th

Inform, guide, educate, and lobby relentlessly. Find allies and champions in the structures that are generating the data. Find a way to recruit them, onboard them, and make them care about this. Find a way to have them lobby their organization for better data formats, or anything that will make your job easier and make them successful. Address the fear of being replaced by software and "AI" as soon as possible, and as frequently as possible. People view you and what you do as a threat to their position; convince them otherwise. Frame problems in terms they understand. Find what they care about, and find how the work will impact what they care about. This requires a systematic and consistent effort and positive energy. It is not easy to do the same pitch with the same enthusiasm for the sixth time on the same day at different places, but this is what it takes. There's a level of trust and goodwill you have to build before anything gets done until it magically unlocks. You will doubt at times because the machinery moves very slow. You also need to be aware of how every person in every organization is thinking, what their motivations and incentives are, how the org chart works, how the "shadow org chart works", what they have to gain or lose, who's the decision maker (in title, in reality, not necessarily the same person) and who that decision maker listens to, who's competing for which position, who's in good or bad terms with who, who started this project and do they have support, did that person inherit the project and wants to "start over" with a clean slate so their predecessor does not get the credit. What position they're aiming for. This is how this works. This is not a CSV/JSON problem.