Once conducting business and making profitable business decisions was an easy task. However, with age, the scenarios have changed and the stakes are high today. Which means that making the right business decisions are not only crucial for success but also a lot harder than before.
In this complex scenario, the only thing that seems to help businesses is Business Intelligence. It is a combined set of software and services that help business organizations to analyze and process the huge amount of data collected from various sources. Once the data is processed, the business organizations can analyze it and gain insight. This detailed insight becomes the ultimate ticket to business success.
Over the years BI has also changed and bears the effect of various technological trends. Perhaps the most crucial of these effects are the ones made by AI and Big Data. So what are these effects really? Let’s see how AI and Big Data has changed Business Intelligence.
AI Has Changed BI: But For Better Or For Worse?
AI has become one of the key drivers that are driving everyday business decisions made by the top guns in the industry. The sophisticated algorithms of modern-day AI are helping the businessmen worldwide gain better insight into their business data and recognize the pattern, that ultimately helps them to make better business decisions.
AI has changed the decision-making process from a reactive process to a proactive one. Once we used to analyze business data on an annual basis to decide what needs to change and what doesn’t.
With AI, there’s no need to do it annually. A well trained AI can alert us of any business emergency beforehand, and we can easily act before the crisis even appears. The application of AI in Business Intelligence has given us the power to be in control of the situation, rather than being steered by the situation.
Let’s look at a few pros and cons of AI in Business Intelligence before we move onto the matter of Big Data.
AI In BI: The Pros
Artificial intelligence comes with plenty of benefits when it comes to aiding Business Intelligence systems, such as:
Better Handling Of Data Coming From Different Sources
AI has become an exceptionally useful BI tool because of how easy it is to handle data from different sources. For a big business, data streams generated from a lot of different sources, and it is hard to keep track of them, let alone understand them. But with AI tools it is easy to manage all the data from different sources, process it and generate detailed insight.
Easy Management Of Overwhelming Amount Of Data
Once again, AI can be used to handle large amounts of data easily and flawlessly. For a multinational business, there is going to be an overwhelming amount of data that will be generated from numerous sources. And handling this huge amount of data is going to be tough even for a team of ten data analyst experts. Hence why AI tools are being used to sort and process the huge amount of data generated every day for big enterprises.
Gaining Real-Time Insight
As we have already discussed above, the use of AI has changed our decision-making process from a reactive to a proactive one. And that’s because of the real-time insight it generates using the data. While the business world grows at a high speed, it is hard to go through the process of making a strategic decision. With AI-enabled Business Intelligence tools, it has become exponentially easier to real-time business insight and forecast for faster decision making.
Filling Up The Data Analyst Shortage
According to the McKinsey report on Big Data, there is a serious shortage of professional data analysts. This serious shortage of professionals who have the skills to take advantage of the data generated from various channels can have dire effects on the business. But due to AI implementation, that shortage has not affected the business world as much. With the right AI-based software, businesses are able to make the right decisions on time without any issues.
But is everything about AI application positive? Probably not. Let’s look at the cons of AI application in Business Intelligence.
AI In BI: The Cons
Even though it might seem extremely beneficial, AI can come with some downsides.
It Is Costly
There are no mincing words when it comes to the budget. AI-enabled tools are indeed costly and it is hard for a small business to afford such BI tools. Not only during the initial installation, but it is also a costly enough solution to maintain and upgrade as well. On top of all this, in the case of malfunction, the reparation charge can drive the entire cost through the roof. And this is why it might not be an ideal solution for small businesses.
Loss Of Human Touch
While it will be easy and efficient to have the AI process the entire data, it still lacks the human touch of experience. Even though Artificial Intelligence is created to imitate the human thinking process, it is still nowhere close to completely understanding the human mind and how it works.
While human beings are able to grow through experiences and thinking, the computer-generated mind only falls into a loop and might end up making the same mistake again and again.
Vulnerable To Attacks And Manipulations
Last but not least, AI is software at the end of the day, which makes it as vulnerable as any other computer software. Cyber criminals are coming up with new ways of hacking and manipulating software used in business administration every day. This makes it even more vulnerable to entrust the entire data handling to the AI-based systems.
While the effect of AI is undeniable when it comes to Business Intelligence, there is another technological trend that has a wide effect on BI, and that is Big Data.
Big Data And Business Intelligence: Do They Go Together?
First, let us clear out what Big Data is.
Big data is a term that refers to large, unstructured data that is extremely complex and can not be processed using traditional ways. This data is collected from various sources, such as customer database, social networking platforms, social surveys, medical records, bank records and many other.
Due to the extreme complexity, businesses are now using Big Data technologies that help them to analyze, extract and process useful information from the huge data sets.
When it comes to Business Intelligence, Big Data technologies have a huge effect on it. The software is helping the businesses to process large data sets. This ultimately leads to a complete understanding of the trends in the market, helping businesses to make business decisions accordingly.
Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of Big Data Technology to determine whether it is truly the best thing for Business Intelligence or not.
Big Data Technologies For Business Intelligence: Pros
Big data technologies have some serious benefits when applied for Business Intelligence., such as-
Affordability
Tools such as Hadoop, cloud-based analytics systems are affordable and cost-saving solutions for businesses to process huge amounts of data. Not to mention, a survey conducted by the Syncsort has shown that companies prefer to invest in Big Data because it helps them to reduce expenses. The affordability added to the cost-reducing option makes Big Data technologies even more beneficial in the Business Intelligence sector.
Time-Saving
Analytics tools such as Hadoop identify and process the new sources of data fast and easily, helping businesses to make decisions fast and without any hassle. The fast process makes for a better landscape for the businesses to grow and achieve their goals fast.
Easier To Develop New Product
By analyzing the big unstructured data, Big Data technology helps businesses to gain real-time insight, which ultimately helps them to develop and update new products easily. The insights gained from the data helps to understand the target market and the requirements, ensuring successful marketing and development of new products.
Understand And Control The Market Position
Analyzing customer details such as purchasing behavior, service engagement, businesses can understand the market conditions and their place in the market. And having these details helps them to not only make better business decisions but also control their position in the market.
Just like AI, Big Data also comes with both pros and cons. Since we have already looked at the pros, it is time to look at the cons this time.
Big Data For Business Intelligence: The Cons
Just like everything else in the world, Big Data application in Business Intelligence also comes with some disadvantages.
Lack Of Human Talent
The first disadvantage of Big Data technology is the lack of talent, a.k.a the data scientists and data experts. They are among the most sought after professionals when it comes to using Big Data technology for Business Intelligence. However, it is very hard to find skilled professionals who can work in the process. The lack of human talent to build a data lake is one of the biggest disadvantages of Big Data application in Business Intelligence.
Issues With Data Quality
More often than not, the data collected from various sources are not always collected as a ready-to-go format. They need to be checked for accuracy, relevancy and then formatted in a proper way before they can be analyzed. Not only does this process delay the entire analysis process, but it also puts in question the quality of the data sets that are being collected.
Cyber Security Risks
When dealing with such a huge amount of data, it goes without saying that there are bound to be some cyber security risks. When a company is handling so much data, some of which might be sensitive, it makes them an attractive target for cyber criminals. Security issues happen to be one of the biggest disadvantages of Big Data application in Business Intelligence.
Compliance Issues With Law And Order
Last but not least, comes the issue of legal compliance. Most often the data collected from various sources can be too sensitive and might have some restrictions about to what extent they can be used. Complying with these legal restrictions are absolutely necessary, however, they might not always help the business to flourish.
Some Last Thoughts
The effects of AI and Big Data technologies in Business Intelligence are something that can be discussed expansively. However, the gist stays the same, the application of these two technologies has both positive and negative effects on the business sector. The end responsibility remains upon us, the human experts to use our knowledge, experience, and lateral thinking to resolve the negative issues and enhance the positive ones. Let me know what you think about the application of AI and Big data tech in Business Intelligence.
