The Age of Analytics: Competing in Data-Driven World for Economic Development

Analytics is a multi-faced field that uses expertise such as computer science, machine learning, statistical learning, and information technology to derive value from a large volume of data. As a result, leading companies use analytics as part of their competitive strategies.

Professor Andrew Ng of Stanford University reveals that artificial intelligence (AI) is the electricity of new generation. Data-driven from the Swiss and World Bank has unveiled a correlation between consumption of electricity and human development index score.

Data is money, that's the only reason why we get many mobile apps free of cost, instead of paying them money we pay for giving our personal information. Data science is a big instrument that can be used to generate value from data. Non-availability of data and incorrect use of the instrument is not likely to create and bring any value to the organization. The success of any analytics project depends on the ability of the organization to ask the right questions at right time, which in turn requires a thorough understanding of the business path. Use of latest technology enables scalability of the solution which is generated by data science. Analytics should be used effectively to drive innovation for real value addition. For example, Amazon is using AI for Amazon's recommendation system, which uses data analytics at the back end to increase sales.

Quality of data and quality of talent are one of the crucial factors that will decide the success of any analytics-driven project.  However, in today's world, data collection has become cheaper, manipulating and much easier. Data should be carefully examined for its quality issues such as reliability, bias, and completeness.

AI-Powered Economy

According to the media reports, it has been revealed that China is investing US$150 billion in activities related to AI with a hope to achieve economic supremacy in the world. During the 2018 budget presentation, Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India informed that NITI Aayog will start a national program on AI. The US has been seeing a large number of start-ups in AI domain.  Europe is making significant efforts so that it is not left behind in the race of AI-driven economy. While corporates are trying to develop solutions using analytics that can either reduce their cost or increase the revenue, governments across the world are trying to use analytics for social causes. Below are some of the fields where analytics is used religiously.

Agriculture

The agriculture sector in India has performed poorly over several years compared to other sectors. Recurring drought, crop diseases, increased cost of cultivation due to seed price, pesticide and fertilizer costs, and fluctuation of crop prices are major contributors to the misery of farmers. The lack of integrated farm advisory system in India that can advise farmers on issues such as crop selection, crop rotation, irrigation scheduling, weed and pest control, diagnosis and treatment of disease and marketing of crops becomes extremely important. Analytics can play an important role in the above issues to build an advisory system that can benefit Indian farmers and increase their income.

Healthcare

Healthcare cost is on the rise. Aging population across many countries is also exerting stress on national healthcare systems. In India, the healthcare costs are increasing at an annual growth rate of 10%, making it unaffordable to a significant proportion of the population. In the healthcare industry, analytics can be used to reduce the costs by reducing the number of diagnostics tests, adopting preventive health care, etc.

Water Resources

Water-related conflicts have become very common nowadays and it is expected that several cities in the world including Bangalore will run out of water soon. Predictive analytics can be used to predict failures in advance to reduce the loss of water.

Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry is moving towards industry 4.0, in which automation of various processes is carried out using various techniques of AI. Internet of Things (IoT) generates a huge volume of data which can be analyzed to improve manufacturing processes. Also, the automobile industry is investing heavily in self-driving cars which are powered by AI. These cars will provide a significant fillip to the growth in automotive industry.

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance

Innovation in banking, financial services and insurance sector (BFSI) today is highly driven by analytics. Apart from traditional issues such as credit rating and underwriting, analytics is also playing a major role in business processes associated with BFSI. Analytics is used by many fintech companies which in turn help them to maintain customer records easily.

Education

According to a report, it has been claimed that more than 50% of Indian graduates are not employable. Creating early warning for school dropout, employability of students are few problems that can be addressed with the help of analytics.

These are some of sectors where analytics is playing a significant role in improving processes and contributing to the economic developments of different countries. Sooner or later, analytics will come to – and from – emerging markets, and, when it does, the world will never be the same.