AI: The New BI - How Algorithms Are Transforming Business Intelligence and Analytics
AI will transform BI the way people make decisions and act. Rather than start with a hypothesis, data analysts will begin with an AI-driven insight. Instead of querying data to prove or disprove their hypothesis, users will query data to expand or validate a machine-generated insight or recommendation—or they might act on the AI-based insight at face value. But to get to that point, AI-infused BI tools will need to gain people's trust by consistently delivering accurate, relevant, and transparent insights within the context of a business user’s existing workflow.
In the future, AI-infused BI tools will go beyond just surfacing insights; they will recommend ways to address or fix issues, run simulations to optimize processes, create new performance targets based on forecasts, and take action automatically. And yes, machines will make some decisions for us—especially operational decisions in real-time environments. We see this today with fraud detection and online trading systems, but it will become more pervasive.
To view side-by-side short demos of AI-infused BI products, check out our demo site.
Key Takeaways
- AI is transforming BI, ushering in the third generation of BI tools.
- AI will make BI easier to use because it automates routine tasks and makes people more productive.
- AI will make BI more valuable because it accelerates time to insight and enables business people to converse iteratively with data.
- There is a risk that people will ignore or disable AI recommendations if they are deemed irrelevant or opaque.
- BI vendors are racing to implement AI capabilities. Expect an onslaught of AI announcements in 2018 and 2019.
- Most BI vendors are using AI to make BI easier to use. A few are also focusing on turning BI into a platform for building and deploying AI models.