The advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked a golden age in business analytics. With modern AI tools, business analysts can complete tasks in minutes that used to take hours, saving time while simultaneously increasing productivity.
If you are planning to enter this field upon graduation, you’ll need to learn how to leverage artificial intelligence. Doing so will help you stand out and make you a more attractive candidate. The best way to learn these skills is to earn an advanced degree, such as an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a concentration in Business Analytics. This article discusses a few ways artificial intelligence enhances business analytics.
How Is AI Used in Business Analytics?
Data and analytics stood apart for years – only valuable when combined. To use them together, companies had to hire a business analyst who not only had the technical expertise to interact with these data sets but also had the industry experience to fill in any contextual gaps in the data. However, AI is increasingly emerging as a way for companies to automatically provide more context to their data sets to wring even more information from them.
To address the elephant in the room, this doesn’t mean that AI will replace business analytics. After all, analyzing data is just one piece of the puzzle. From there, the business analyst is still necessary to poke holes in the insights provided by AI, fine-tune tools to get more detailed results as well as come up with creative solutions to any new problems that arise — all areas where AI falls short.
The International Institute of Business Analysis is confident that business analysts will always be necessary to bridge the gap among technical teams, tech users and management teams. Instead of AI replacing the analyst, think of AI as a tool that analysts use to achieve more than ever before.
Four Examples of AI in Business Analytics
The use cases for artificial intelligence in the workplace will likely expand rapidly over the coming years, as roughly 80-90% of large businesses plan to adopt AI over the next two years, according to IBM. The number of ways business analysts can leverage AI will likely advance just as quickly as the tech itself. That said, the most common uses for AI in business analytics today are:
- Automation: The days of editing a spreadsheet line-by-line or manually inputting data are all but over. AI can handle most of the tedious tasks associated with business analytics, which frees analysts to focus on higher-level issues.
- Experimentation: AI is also improving the level of experimentation and testing possible with data sets. AI applications can run various tests in minutes that would have manually taken hours. This allows data analysts to draw more insights from the same set of data.
- Expanded Thinking: Though AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, cannot necessarily generate new ideas, analysts can still rely on them to create a framework for solving new problems. In this sense, AI chatbots serve as assistant data analysts who can offer ideas or comments that assist analysts.
- Supported Answers: Traditionally, algorithms and business intelligence tools would simply produce an answer, leaving interpretation to the analyst. But, modern artificial intelligence takes problem-solving further by not only answering the question but also providing reasoning and insight.
Democratizing Data
Artificial intelligence is making business analytics so readily available that Datacamp predicts we will see a democratization of data over the coming years. In other words, as it becomes easier to draw insights from sets of data, it will become much more feasible for smaller organizations to leverage business analytics. In this sense, it’s similar to how the creation of drag-and-drop website builders made creating a website possible for everyone — not just those with coding knowledge.
In the past, business analytics required high-level computer skills and basic coding knowledge to interact with data sets. But, moving forward, dissecting data will be as easy as uploading a data set and asking your AI chatbot questions. This means that data analytics will increasingly become available to small and medium-sized businesses that did not previously have the bandwidth for it.
As the prevalence of data analytics grows, so too will the need for professional, qualified business analysts. If you’re interested in venturing down this path and starting a career in this growing field, the best way to elevate your profile is to obtain an advanced degree, such as an online MBA concentration in Business Analytics. This degree offers two main benefits: it teaches the latest best practices for artificial intelligence in business analytics and provides the skills to communicate these insights to leadership.
Expanding Artificial Intelligence Competency
Carleton University’s online program offers a course titled Business Analytics for Managers that explores trends in big data use in organizations, as well as theories and trends relevant to data analytics. The program teaches students the business fundamentals required to thrive in the workplace. Graduates will know how to leverage data to drive strategic decisions and growth. Many universities offer MBA degrees. But, for the best opportunity for success, a degree that offers specific courses on business analytics is ideal.
Learn more about Carleton University’s online Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analytics program.