{"id":14506,"date":"2018-02-15T18:26:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T17:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/?p=14506"},"modified":"2018-02-17T09:43:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T08:43:03","slug":"analytics-what-happened-in-2017-and-where-is-2018-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timoelliott.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/analytics-what-happened-in-2017-and-where-is-2018-going.html","title":{"rendered":"Analytics: What Happened in 2017 And Where Is 2018 Going?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, the nice folks at BIBlogg.no<\/a>\u00a0reach out to various experts to get their opinions on the greatest trends in analytics. You can get the full list of answers\u00a0here<\/a>, but here are my answers to their questions<\/a>:<\/p>\n

What was, in your opinion, the most important thing that happened in Analytics in 2017?<\/b><\/p>\n

The biggest change was a massive wave of publicity about the power of data, with many algorithmic breakthroughs. Computers are now better at transcribing speech, reading lips, and tagging images than people. AlphaGo Zero bested 2,000 years of human learning about the strategy of Go in just three days, with no prior knowledge of the game! The result was that use of data to change how society works was discussed at levels never before seen. Data and analytics has been the hottest thing in the IT industry for decades, and in business for several years \u2014 but now it\u2019s the hottest thing in society as a whole!<\/p>\n

What is, in your opinion, the most important thing that will happen in Analytics in 2018?<\/b><\/p>\n

First,\u00a0analytics will be at least four times more important<\/a>\u00a0for the business than it has been in the past. New technology means we\u2019ll be able to deliver much more, with the rapid implementation of AI to create \u201cself-improving processes<\/a>\u201d \u2014 everything from predictive maintenance to lights-out finance \u2014 and to\u00a0augment traditional analytics<\/a>, with natural-language interfaces, automatic sense-making, more intelligent data matching, and much more.<\/p>\n

There was a lot of talk about robotization in 2017 – how do you think this will affect businesses in 2018?<\/b><\/p>\n

There will be a\u00a0huge amount of automation using machine learning in 2018<\/a>. But it will be mostly about saving every one of us a few hours of work a week, rather than eliminating jobs \u2014 i.e. it will\u00a0displace work rather than replace workers<\/a>. The result is that we will be able to spend less time chasing information, and more time thinking about the big strategic changes required by digital transformation.<\/p>\n

Big Data is said to be a dying term, and Business Intelligence appears to go the same direction. Do you agree with this, and if so, what do you think is the best term that can replace these?<\/b><\/p>\n

Ironically,\u00a0this isn\u2019t backed up by the available data<\/a>, at least according to Google Trends \u2014 in fact, all terms associated with any aspect of analytics are on the rise. Personally, I hate semantic or nomenclature wars. They\u2019re\u00a0a complete waste of time for everybody<\/a>\u00a0except the analysts and bloggers that get traffic from writing polemic articles about how somebody else is using a term incorrectly. Instead of arguing over words, everybody should concentrate on making sure that there are no misunderstandings on a particular project, that everybody agrees on what information is to be made available, and why, and how.
\nWhat new concepts and buzzwords do you think will appear in Analytics in 2018?<\/b><\/p>\n