Seattle, WA, Jan. 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TDWI Research has released its newest Best Practices Report, BI and Analytics in the Age of AI and Big Data. This original, survey-based report looks at how and why organizations are using artificial intelligence (AI) and other modern technologies to maximize the value of their BI and analytics.
AI and big data technologies and platforms are creating new opportunities as well as challenges. Opportunities include improvements to the user experience through smart recommendations and faster capabilities for finding, accessing, and analyzing different types of data. Challenges include whether organizations have the right skill sets, governance, and data management. Cloud-based solutions are helping organizations become more dynamic, but obstacles remain.
According to the report, organizations are anxious to capitalize on advances in artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud-based services to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness. These technology trends will reshape how organizations set their BI, analytics, and data architecture strategies.
Excitement about the technologies is tempered with caution. Report author David Stodder, senior director of TDWI Research for business intelligence, explains that TDWI research in this report highlights concerns about data governance, data quality, user satisfaction, and having the right skill sets to move forward. “Enterprises want to empower a burgeoning community of users to move beyond simple data consumption and do more reporting, data exploration, data preparation, and analytics on their own with less IT involvement,” but they must still pay attention to data security, privacy, and access concerns.
Report Highlights
This comprehensive report reveals:
- Many firms (43%) plan to both build and buy AI and machine learning solutions; just 13% plan to exclusively build their own
- When it comes to analytics technologies, 85% of enterprises are using spreadsheets, 82% have a BI platform on premises, and 30% have a BI platform in the cloud
- Nearly half (47%) of survey participants indicated that their organizations seek to use AI and machine learning to improve the accuracy and quality of information
- Future growth in cloud-based data warehouses and data marts should be strong. Although just 22% are using this mode today (compared with 75% using a data warehouse or mart on premises), 41% plan to use the cloud for data warehousing or data marts in the future
- About four in ten firms surveyed are seeking to improve the analytics user experience by automating discovery of data insights
- Almost half of enterprises said that insufficient budget or resources is the biggest barrier to improving BI and analytics
- Sizeable numbers of organizations are using newer or specialized technologies, such as data lakes (30%), in-memory analytics (21%), and data virtualization or federation (18%)
- More than half (54%) of organizations surveyed see room for improvement in how they define data and catalog metadata; 24% do not have a centralized data catalog, glossary, or metadata repository
Stodder concludes the report with best practices for today’s enterprises, from enhancing the self-service user experience to reducing delays in data preparation and transformation.
This research was sponsored by Arcadia Data, Hitachi Vantara, OpenText, Oracle, and ThoughtSpot.
About the Author
David Stodder is senior director of TDWI Research for business intelligence. He focuses on providing research-based insight and best practices for organizations implementing BI, analytics, performance management, data discovery, data visualization, and related technologies and methods. He is the author of TDWI Best Practices Reports and Checklist Reports on AI for BI, cloud analytics, data visualization, customer analytics, big data analytics, design thinking, and data governance. He has chaired TDWI conferences on visual BI and analytics, business agility, and analytics. Stodder has provided thought leadership on BI, information management, and IT management for over two decades. He is an industry analyst, having served as vice president and research director with Ventana Research, and he was the founding chief editor of Intelligent Enterprise and Database Programming & Design. You can reach him at dstodder@tdwi.org, @dbstodder on Twitter, and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/davidstodder.
About TDWI
For 20 years, TDWI has provided individuals and teams with a comprehensive portfolio of business and technical education and research about all things data. TDWI’s in-depth, best-practices-based knowledge can be quickly applied to develop world-class talent across your organization’s business and IT functions to enhance analytical, data-driven decision making. TDWI offers four major conferences as well as topical seminars, onsite education, membership, certification, live webinars, resource-filled publications, industry news, and in-depth research. See tdwi.org or follow us on Twitter @TDWI.
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