After 5 years in data science, I’m starting to realize most “insights” we deliver are completely ignored. Is this normal?

I’ve been in data science roles (both analytics and ML) for about 5 years now across a couple of companies. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit burned out because I keep seeing the same pattern:

We spend weeks cleaning data, building dashboards, running statistical analysis, or training models… and then the stakeholders either:

• Say “thanks” and never use it
• Cherry-pick the numbers that support their existing opinion
• Or just completely ignore the findings and go with gut feel anyway

The worst part is when leadership asks for a “data-driven decision” but they’ve already decided what they want to do.

Am I alone in this? Or is this just the reality of data science in most companies?

For those of you who’ve been in the field longer how do you deal with this? Have you found companies where data actually influences decisions at a meaningful level?

Would love to hear honest experiences.