This makes me think of my work and how people complain about our data uploads occasionally. They never quite get it when I have to explain that the system is dumb, it just takes the day you give it and puts it somewhere else. If you give it bad data to begin with then of course it's going to be wrong. That's an input problem though, not a tech one. The tech is working exactly the way it is supposed to. Same thing with the economy.
I think that data is getting used more smartly as we go forward. A lot of the mundane tasks are being automated, so that rather than just finding information, it is also possible to start thinking about how that information is to be used. AI helps with this of course, but it still relies on quality of information to begin with.
Yeah, that's where I think the big gap is. Especially where I work. Individuals have maybe a high school degree at best and they are the ones entering the data. Not that there is anything wrong with not having a HS degree...