To survive and succeed in a time of rapid digital change, organizations are recognizing that just being “data-driven” will not ensure future success. In 2019, leaders are now facing the challenge of shifting from their isolated, departmental analytics methods to a focus on clear business outcomes, setting aside their “interesting” dashboards.
Forrester notes that it’s not “data-driven,” but rather “insights-driven,” businesses that are growing at an average of more than 30% each year, and by 2021 are predicted to take $1.8 trillion annually from their less-informed peers. Organizations that are intent on lasting into the next decade and beyond must stop doing analytics for analytics’ sake, notes Forrester and other top thought leaders who have shared these 10 Enterprise Analytics Trends to Watch in 2019:
Trend 1: The Data Mindset Moves from Visualization to Outcomes
Forrester VP and Principal Analyst Mike Gualtieri, Forrester Principal Analyst Jennifer Belissent, and Forrester Senior Analyst Cinny Little echo the call for analytics that drive results, noting in their predictions for 2019, “interesting is no longer the standard for business insights efforts. Instead, insights projects must draw a straight line from business objectives to business outcomes.”
Forrester Analytics show that most organizations have a way to go, however, in reaching this level. Their research reveals that more than half (57%) of global data and analytics decision makers are still in the early stages of their insights-driven business transformation and fall into Forrester’s beginner maturity segment. Only 8% demonstrate advanced insights-driven competencies, according to their findings.
Trend 2: Explainable AI Requires Investment
BBBT member Marcus Borba notes enterprise organizations should look to invest in explainable AI in 2019, with very important reason: to manage regulations, ethical use of data, transparency, compliance requirements, and risk. As artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, notes Borba, concerns around fairness, bias, and security will require immediate action.
Trend 3: Consumer-grade, Zero-click Intelligence Arrives
MicroStrategy CMO Marge Breya heralds the arrival of user experiences like those consumers enjoy – but for enterprise analytics. Whether by voice assistant, hovering over a hyperlink, or stepping up to a screen in an office, real-time intelligence will be delivered to all employees in a way that’s easily consumed by every individual, finally breaking down the barrier to organization-wide analytics adoption.
Trend 4: Embedded Analytics Enables Success in the Digital Economy
IDC Research Manager Chandana Gopal also believes that embedding intelligence into day-to-day business applications will empower employees to make the best decisions on behalf of companies when it counts. “Data volumes and complexity are rapidly increasing, and enterprises need a clear strategy to provide all knowledge workers access to data and analytics within their workstreams,” advises Gopal.
Trend 5: Leaders Bring Advanced Analytics into Production at Scale
Taking a look at what will be differentiating for analytics leaders and fast followers in 2019, Constellation Research VP and Principal Analyst Doug Henschen says there are three areas in which leaders will need to excel: bringing advanced analytics, including ML and DL, into production at scale, (meeting low-latency requirements by embracing stream processing and streaming analytics, and getting creative with embedded analytics.
“Data maturity is such that having data at scale and even having solid data management across on-premises and cloud-based sources is no longer differentiating for the leading five percent of organizations or the fast-following 15% of organizations,” warns Henschen.
Trend 6: Collaboration Rises Again
Ventana Research SVP David Menninger, who predicted the mainstream use of voice-assistants for analytics in 2018, notes that collaboration will be key in 2019. “Our research shows that more than half (52%) of organizations use or intend to use collaboration with analytics. Keep your eye on the prize -action, not just analytics,” advises Menninger.
Trend 7: Pervasive Mobility Bolsters Business Success
Ventana Research CEO Mark Smith notes advances in mobile technology will change analytics and the way people work moving forward. Smith says six key technology innovations are making mobile devices smarter and more valuable to business: device proximity, speech recognition, gestures, facial recognition, high-quality cameras and augmented reality (AR). “When considering how to take strategic advantage of mobile technology, organizations can embrace enterprise platforms that are built to support mobile devices and take advantage of these six digital innovations,” says Smith.
Trend 8: AI Strategies Become a Necessity
“It’s not a matter of if AI will transform your industry, it’s only a matter of when.” That’s why analytics and digital transformation influencer Ronald van Loon says artificial intelligence strategies are an immediate necessity for enterprise organizations. “The earlier businesses are ready to use artificial intelligence throughout their core functions, the faster they will benefit from it, and the more prepared they will be for the digital future,” notes van Loon. “Therefore, every business needs an AI strategy and must prepare an end-to-end AI management solution for 2019.”
Trend 9: Leaders Must Take the Best Steps Today to Ensure Future Success
On a related note, Constellation Research Founder and Principal Analyst Ray Wang says that analytics leaders will apply artificial intelligence for business agility and scale in 2019 but should do so with five important elements in mind. In designing AI-augmented data systems, the Disrupting Digital Business author says these systems must be transparent, explainable, reversible, trainable, and human led.
Trend 10: The Evolution of Analytics Accelerates
Georgia Tech Executive Professor of Analytics Beverly Wright has six trends she’s watching in 2019, including the increased movement toward automation, AI, and deep learning techniques, methods, and processes. But another trend is deliberate data-culture initiatives, which comes back to the need for businesses to transform from “data-driven” to insights-driven. “Companies articulate openly their need to shift their organization’s culture to become more data-inspired in decision-making related to strategic down to tactical decisions,” observes Wright. “Now it seems they’re starting to put initiatives in place to encourage this shift and move the environment along more quickly, with the hopes that this priming will help increase the absorption and adoption of analytics solutions.”
From embedded and AI-augmented analytics to collaborative decision making, a laser focus on business outcomes, AI strategies, transformational mobility, and answers that find you, get more details and advice around the above trends in 10 Enterprise Analytics Trends to Watch in 2019.