During the past decade, business intelligence has evolved and exploded. And for good reason. Enterprises are phasing out endless spreadsheets and turning to streamlined data visualizations and interactive business dashboards. 2023 will bring more advancement—most likely focusing on data security and discovery.
If your organization is already using business analytics, you’ll probably experience the following trends this year. And if you aren’t yet utilizing business analytics, these are the trends worth considering:
1. Data security
Increased data security will be one of the biggest trends in business analytics. Security breaches are on the rise, and as more companies take advantage of analytics, the risk of these breaches increases exponentially. Business intelligence will be a key defensive tactic to forecast future threats.
2. Artificial intelligence
AI will soon evolve into a more scalable technology, as organizations come to depend on AI-based systems. Automation drives consistency by reducing human error, which builds trust that positive results will be delivered. The primary drivers for automation? Reduced labor costs and optimized resources. AI can play a major role in everything from simple tasks to overall business systems infrastructure—and it connects deeply with business intelligence efforts.
3. Data visualizations
Data visualization is the practice of converting raw information into a graphic format. Visualizations can help organizations interpret complex data, to draw conclusions and efficiently make informed decisions. Often, they can help them find correlations that wouldn’t be visible in static tables or wordy reports. Organizations globally want more interactive ways to deliver KPIs and business metrics—driving spiked demand for data visualization skills and software.
4. Data governance
More access to data requires more accountability. Because of this, stricter global regulations are on the horizon in 2023. These regulations have already been implemented around the world, specifically the European GDPR, Canadian PIPEDA, Chinese PIPL, South African POPI Act, and more. The goal is to ensure customer protection by auditing how data is handled.
5. Collaborative BI
The upsurge of remote employees has increased the need for strong, accessible data insights. Even in a face-to-face world, organizations were struggling to be data-driven—remote work has only amplified this challenge. Collaborative business intelligence (CBI) is the integration of business intelligence and collaborative technological tools used to support a business in making critical decisions.
6. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
This field of computer science and computational linguistics focuses on the interactions between humans and computers. NLP helps computers leverage data context to understand meaning. It makes data analysis accessible to every level of users. Even beginners. The technology does not require prerequisite knowledge of BI tools in order to extract insights.
These trends in business analytics aren’t fleeting ideas that will be forgotten in a few years. In the increasingly digital world we live in, they will certainly become more important.
If you’re interested in the field of business analytics, enroll today in the Business Analytics Nanodegree program. Learn foundational data skills that apply across all industries. Focus on analyzing data, building models with Excel, querying databases using SQL, and creating informative data visualizations with Tableau. No previous experience is required, but learners should be comfortable using a computer to download and install applications.
