Introduction
The world of business intelligence is constantly evolving as new technologies and methodologies emerge. As we look ahead to 2024, there are several key trends and tools that are likely to shape the future of BI and enable organizations to derive greater value from their data. In this article, I will provide an overview of the top BI trends and tools to watch in the coming years.
Growth of Augmented Analytics
Augmented analytics leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate data preparation, insight discovery, and report generation. Rather than replacing human analytics professionals, augmented analytics enhances their abilities. As this technology matures, it will become mainstream, allowing analytics teams to focus on higher value tasks.
Key drivers of augmented analytics growth:
- Natural language querying and voice-enabled analytics will enable users to simply ask questions of their data.
- Automated machine learning will expedite model development and deployment.
- Smart data preparation will reduce the time required to cleanse and organize data for analysis.
By 2024, the augmented analytics market is projected to reach $13 billion as organizations continue to adopt these AI-powered capabilities.
Expansion of Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics identifies patterns in data to make predictions about future outcomes. As organizational data continues to grow in volume and complexity, predictive analytics adoption will surge.
Key trends in predictive analytics:
- Wider accessibility through automated machine learning tools that allow citizen data scientists to develop and run predictive models.
- Real-time predictive capabilities through streaming analytics frameworks like Apache Spark.
- Predictive maintenance will be increasingly leveraged in manufacturing, utilities, and other industrial sectors.
By applying predictive models, organizations can forecast sales, detect fraud, anticipate equipment failures, and guide other data-driven decisions. The global predictive analytics market size is expected to reach $10.6 billion by 2024.
Cloud Becomes the Norm
The cloud has become the dominant deployment model for business intelligence tools and platforms. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) BI offerings provide scalability and accessibility unmatched by on-premise solutions.
Key drivers of cloud BI growth:
- Cost savings: Cloud BI is subscription-based, eliminating large upfront licensing, infrastructure, and maintenance costs.
- Faster deployment: Cloud solutions allow for rapid setup compared to lengthy on-premises installations.
- Scalability: Compute and storage can be provisioned elastically to accommodate fluctuations in usage.
By 2024, over 80% of new BI investments are projected to be in the cloud. Modern data platforms like Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform will continue to expand their BI capabilities.
Embedded BI and Customized Experiences
Rather than accessing BI dashboards and reports in standalone tools, users want analytic capabilities directly embedded into commonly used business applications. Embedded BI provides role-based insights in the natural workflow.
Additionally, tailoring the interface to different user needs and use cases will become more commonplace. Examples include:
- Customized dashboards: configuring layouts and content for specific organizational roles.
- Voice interfaces: allowing hands-free navigation of reports and dashboards.
- Mobile BI apps: responsive analytic apps optimized for use on phones and tablets.
By deeply embedding analytics and tailored experiences, usage and adoption across the organization will increase.
Growth of Unstructured Data Analysis
Historically, BI tools have focused on structured data in warehouses and transactional systems. However, the vast majority of enterprise data is unstructured – text documents, social media, images, audio and video.
Key technology trends to watch include:
- Natural language processing to extract insights from text data.
- Image recognition and computer vision to analyze images, video and other multimedia.
- Sentiment analysis of social media to monitor brand perception and trends.
New capabilities will finally allow organizations to tap into these underutilized sources of information. Spending on unstructured data analysis is expected to grow at over 30% annually.
Key Tools to Monitor
Here are some of the top business intelligence platforms and tools I recommend keeping tabs on over the next few years:
- Microsoft Power BI – The clear market leader that will continue expanding its augmented analytics capabilities.
- Tableau – Dominant self-service data visualization tool that has added integrated AI features.
- Qlik – Innovator in associative analytics boasting strong data integration and governance.
- ThoughtSpot – Search and AI-driven analytics platform focused on easing business user adoption.
- Databricks – Unified analytics platform built on Apache Spark for processing big data in the cloud.
- Alteryx – Leading self-service data preparation and analytics tool for data analysts.
These solutions demonstrate cutting-edge capabilities that will shape the analytics landscape over the next few years. Tracking their evolution will keep you apprised of the latest and greatest BI innovations.
Conclusion
Business intelligence technology is advancing rapidly, bringing automation, simplicity, customization, and accessibility of data insights to new heights. By keeping pace with trends like augmented analytics, predictive modeling, cloud platforms, and unstructured data analysis, organizations can ensure they are leveraging BI to its full strategic potential. With the right strategy and awareness of leading solutions, the BI function can become an even more critical driver of competitive advantage through 2024 and beyond.
